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Dan Rodney/3 min read

What’s New in InDesign CC 2019?

Recent InDesign Highlights

Performance Improvements

Faster opening and rendering of large documents.

Cloud Documents

Real-time syncing across devices and team members.

OpenType Variable Fonts

Strong support for variable font axes inside InDesign.

Adjust Layout

Auto-adjust layouts when changing page size or margins.

Adobe Sensei Integration

AI-assisted layout and image suggestions.

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Each year Adobe comes out with new features, so what changed in InDesign CC 2019? We’ll cover the most important changes we think you should know about.

New Properties Panel

Properties panels have been added to Photoshop and Illustrator, and now InDesign has one. The Properties panel is meant to put many useful features into a single panel.

By default, the Control panel (at the top of the screen) has been hidden, in favor of the new Properties panel. While I like the idea of the Properties panel, I find that the Control panel does a better job of showing you more options in a smaller space. You can show the Control panel again by choosing Window > Control.

Space Between Paragraphs Using the Same Style

In addition to Space Before and Space After, you can now specify the amount of space between paragraphs of the same style. How is this useful? Let’s say you want to make a bulleted list where there’s more space above and below the list, but less space between each item in the list. Before this new CC 2019 feature, you’d have to make three styles:

  • one style for the first list item with extra space above
  • one style for middle list items with less space above and below
  • one style for the last list item with extra space below

Now you can make just one style for the entire list! Set the space above and below to have more space, and then set the space between paragraphs using the same style to a smaller amount of that will be used for all the items within the list.

New Layout Adjustment Feature

When you change the page size, margins, or bleed of a document, CC 2019’s new layout adjustment feature can help adjust the size and position of the content in your file.

To use the new layout adjustment do any of the following:

  • Go to File > Adjust Layout.
  • Go to File > Document Setup and click Adjust Layout.
  • When changing margins in Layout > Margins and Columns, check on Adjust Layout.

Adobe Fonts & Previewing Fonts

Typekit has been renamed Adobe Fonts, but it’s not just a rebranding. There are more features and the Adobe Fonts collection of fonts are more integrated into InDesign. Previously only some fonts could be synced to your computer and there were limits as to how many fonts could be synced at the same time. Those limits are now gone!

Accessing the 14,000+ fonts available within Adobe Fonts service can now be done directly in InDesign:

  1. When choosing a font, click the Find More tab.
  2. If you have text selected, hovering over each font will preview it in the file without have to download the font!
  3. To download that font for use on your computer, click the cloud icon to the right of the font.

Even if you aren’t using Adobe Fonts, hovering over any font name will preview it on your selected text, which makes it a lot faster to find the right font!

Miscellaneous Features or Changes

  • There’s a new Content-Aware Fit option for scaling images to fit their frame.
  • When exporting there’s a new Use InDesign Document Name as the Output Filename option.
  • You can now add footnotes in tables.
  • Endnotes can now be converted to footnotes, or vice versa (in the Type menu).
  • When packaging, you no longer have to create the instruction text file. If you don’t want that file, uncheck Create Printing Instructions in the Summary tab of the Package dialog (File > Package).
  • You can control the look of forms exported to PDF using custom fonts.
  • You can import PDF comments by choosing File > Import PDF Comments, or open the PDF Comments panel by choosing Window > PDF Comments and clicking Import PDF Comments.
  • OpenType SVG fonts are now supported. These fonts support multiple colors allowing for more graphical characters such as emojis.

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