New features from InDesign V19

Along with fixing some issues, Version 19 of Adobe InDesign introduces some new features.

Adobe emphasizes the paragraph style pack feature from this new round of update. Adobe calls it Auto style, as what it is called, character style is not involved. With this feature, you are able to apply same style onto multiple text frames. If you don't have the time to create your own style pack, you can take advantage from Adobe's style packs on presets. However, if you don't have the preset font installed on your computer, it will take your computer a while to think/download the font files before the new style shows up.

My short experience with it is not that impressive. At the beginning, you still need to manually style element such as heading and paragraph to the text, then you can assign styles onto them. The auto style feature might be more helpful after. But, I don't see the point of using this so call "auto" feature since I feel it is more solid just using the paragraph style.

Another feature which is worth to mention is the file name suffix export. Although it only works for JPG and PNG format, with this new option, you can add incremental numbers, page numbers and document size onto file name automatically. If you are like me, who like to add document size into file name for different social media image, this new feature is helpful.

Last, Harfbuzz. It is a text shaping engine which primarily supports Open Type font. The new version was just released in late October this year. And Adobe has adapted it already. Harfbuzz helps InDesign and other graphic programs to improve shaping and correct rendering of glyphs for Indic and MENA language like Arabic, Thai and Hebrew. You will have more control on type setting and see a new look on those language with the new engine on hand.

Which feature mentioned above is your favorite? Let me know.