Adobe unveils big new features for its desktop publishing tool - find out what they are here.
It's over half a year since Adobe moved InDesign and the rest of the Creative Suite to its subscription-only Creative Cloud service, and it's clear that, whatever you think of the company's new business model, it's determined to stay the course.
With 1.4 million paying members, the Cloud is now the only game in town for Adobe, and it knows that the only way it can keep, and extend, its paying audience is by making the software better and better. To that end, 50 'new and enhanced' features were added to the Creative Cloud tools in 2013, and today marks the beginning of a major new rollout of features for 2014, with more than 20 additions to its core tools, Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and InDesign CC. So what's new in InDesign today? Read on to find out...
You can now use Typekit's desktop fonts directly within InDesign
You can now quickly access the rich library of Typekit desktop fonts directly from the InDesign Font menu. That's over 700+ fonts for use in your projects, all free as part of your Creative Cloud subscriptions.
02. No more "missing fonts"
It's the bane of anyone working in any form of publishing using InDesign - whenever you open up a document you get that annoying pop-up box that tells you you have 'missing fonts'.
But hold on, you say, if I'm using Typekit fonts, which are now integrated into the Creative Cloud, surely there must be a way that the software can find them for you automatically?
Thankfully, that's just what Adobe has done. So now when you open up a file, InDesign finds the missing Typekit fonts for you and prompts you to sync them with a single click.
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03. Font search and filter
Looking for a font? You can now type any portion of a font name, such as “bold,” “semicondensed,” or “italic,” or any part of a font family name, and see only the fonts that match your criteria. Plus you can also now filter for Typekit fonts only.
This video explains how to use all the new font capabilities in InDesign CC to your advantage:
04. Simplified hyperlinks
Creating and managing hyperlinks is now simpler, faster, and more intuitive in InDesign CC. You can use right-click commands to create and test them; there's an improved panel to help you manage them and edit their names more efficiently; and automatic styling makes it easier to spot every hyperlink in your layout without getting a concentration headache.
05. E-pub enhancements
You can now add popup footnotes to your ebooks
If you're frustrated that there's not enough interactivity in your ebooks, then here's a new feature in InDesign CC that should interest you. You're now able enhance your digital books with interactive footnotes. These pop up, in context, on the page being read with a simple tap, giving readers the option of extra information without interrupting their focus or reading flow.
The latest version of InDesign CC also promises smarter text handling on export, with more accurate presentation of text colour, tables, and nested styles. You can also map object styles to tags for export and more easily edit CSS.
