Changelog

Here is some information about the versions of IDML-Creator, when they were released and what changes there were.

5.4.0 2025-10-28

Changed

Set latest InDesign version to 2026 (21.0).
Updated dependencies.

5.3.0 2025-10-08

Added

Added a lot more properties to the CharacterStyle class.

Added transparent color [None] to the color panel. It can be used now like any other color:

<?php

use BitAndBlack\IdmlCreator\Content\Color\NoneColor;
use BitAndBlack\IdmlCreator\Content\Style\CharacterStyle;

$characterStyle = new CharacterStyle();
$characterStyle->setFillColor(new NoneColor());

5.2.1 2025-05-23

Fixed

Change type int to float for second parameter $bridge in method setColumns() in class TextFrame.

5.2.0 2025-05-23

Changed

Improved table border color handling:
- Setters and getters have been added in class TableStyle.
- Values can be set to null in class Table.

5.1.0 2025-02-22

Changed

Improved support for PHP 8.4.

5.0.0 2024-12-19

Changed

PHP >=8.2 is now required.
The namespace has been changed from IDML to BitAndBlack\IdmlCreator.
Dependencies have been upgraded:
- bitandblack/iccprofile ^1.0 is now required.
- bitandblack/idml-writer ^2.0 is now required.
- bitandblack/image-information ^3.0 is now required.
- bitandblack/qr-code ^1.0 is now required.

4.2.0 2024-10-14

Changed

Updated dependencies.
Set latest InDesign version to 2025 (20.0).

4.1.1 2024-09-03

Fixed

Fixed wrong handling of CIELab colors.

4.1.0 2024-07-30

Fixed

Changed how grouped elements are getting placed. This fixes the possibly wrong positions of images inside Rectangles.
Fixed wrong calculation of table rows, that could lead to wrong cell heights.

Added

Add Composer enum for Paragraph Styles.
Add table style properties ColumnFillsPriority, StartColumnFillColor and EndColumnFillColor.

4.0.0 2024-02-08

Changed

PHP >=8.1 is now required.
All Enum Classes have been replaced by native Enums. This changes, how they need to be written. For example, instead of writing PagePosition::RIGHT() you need to write PagePosition::RIGHT now.

Added

A class Factory has been added, that allows handling IDML components easier. Instead of initializing every object manually and also adding it to the Content object manually, the Factory takes care of that.

Before

<?php 

use IDML\Content;
use Content\Style\ParagraphStyle;

$content = new Content();

$paragraphStyle = new ParagraphStyle('Body Text');
$paragraphStyle
    ->setPointSize(12)
    ->setLineHeight(14.4)
;

$content->add($paragraphStyle);

After

<?php 

use IDML\Factory;

$factory = new Factory();

$paragraphStyle = $factory->createParagraphStyle('Body Text')
    ->setPointSize(12)
    ->setLineHeight(14.4)
;

The Content class has been extended with a new method add(). The method is a shorthand for every other set* or add* method. So for example, instead of writing $content->addSpread($spread), you can write $content->add($spread) now.

3.10.0 2025-10-02

Changed

Improved deprecation handling.

3.9.0 2024-10-14

Changed

Updated dependencies.
Set latest InDesign version to 2025 (20.0).

3.8.2 2024-09-03

Fixed

Fixed wrong handling of CIELab colors.

3.8.1 2024-07-30

Fixed

Fixed wrong calculation of table rows, that could lead to wrong cell heights.

3.8.0 2024-06-27

Added

Add Composer enum for Paragraph Styles.

3.7.2 2024-06-13

Fixed

Changed, how grouped elements are getting placed. This fixes the possibly wrong positions of images inside Rectangles.

3.7.1 2024-06-13

Added

Add table style property ColumnFillsPriority.

3.7.0 2024-06-13

Added

Add table style properties StartColumnFillColor and EndColumnFillColor.

3.6.0 2024-01-23

Changed

Update dependencies.

3.5.0 2023-12-14

Changed

The method fitImageToFrame has been deprecated and was replaced by fillFrameWithImageProportional.
When setting an image the a Rectangle, Polygon or Oval, the method setSrc accepts now a second parameter with an different file path. This allows to use other paths when creating an IDML document than in Adobe InDesign itself.

Added

The method fitImageToFrameProportional has been added to the classes Rectangle, Polygon and Oval.

3.4.1 2023-11-30

Fixed

Fix handling of GraphicLines.

3.4.0 2023-11-23

Fixed

Fix positioning of elements that could lead to wrong (ordered) element edges.

Changed

bitandblack/image-information >= 2.0.1 is now required.
The Image class can now be initialized with a class that allows caching of image information. The easiest way is to use the library's default Cache class (which implements the symfony/cache library), but any other (custom) class implementing the CacheInterface can be used too.
Stories can be cloned now.
Format styles as well as colors will be sorted alphabetically now.

Added

The Content class now provides the three default colors Paper, Black and Registration. Their color model depends on the DocumentIntent setting and is RGB or CMYK. The colors can be used by calling Content::getDefaultWhite(), Content::getDefaultBlack() and Content::getRegistrationColor().

3.3.0 2023-10-27

Added

Added properties to Table Styles:
- StartRowFillColor
- StartColumnStrokeColor
- StartColumnFillCount
- EndRowFillColor
- EndColumnStrokeColor
- EndColumnFillCount
Added properties to TextFrames and Rectangles:
- TopLeftCornerOption
- TopRightCornerOption
- TopLeftCornerRadius
- TopRightCornerRadius
- BottomLeftCornerOption
- BottomRightCornerOption
- BottomLeftCornerRadius
- BottomRightCornerRadius

Fixed

Fixed the wrong inheritance of Paragraph Styles in Cells.
Fixed the wrong order of attributes when setting an inset space for a TextFrame.
Fixed the wrong row count when adding headers and footers to Tables.
Fixed calculation of anchor points that could cause inset spacing and border radius to get ignored.

3.2.0 2023-10-17

Changed

Changed the handling of annotations in the PropertyReader class, that brings a massive performance improvement.

Added

Added the method setCacheItemPool in the PropertyReader class, so the annotation reading can be cached. This can improve the performance on large IDML documents.

3.1.0 2023-10-12

Changed

Updated the InDesignVersion enum to the latest InDesign version with the property INDESIGN_2024. IDML files will contain the new version number 19.0 when no other definition has been set.
Dependencies have been updated.

3.0.1 2023-10-06

Fixed

Fix wrong namespace causing autoload problems.

3.0.0 2023-07-18

Changed

PHP >=8.0.2 is now required.
Deprecations have been removed.

2.22.0 2024-01-23

Changed

Update dependencies.

2.21.0 2023-07-07

Changed

Changed some methods from private to public in class FontStyle.

2.20.0 2023-02-01

Fixed

Added missing InDesign version property in FontStyle and ParagraphStyle.
Added missing null type in ParagraphStyle.
Added base64 encoding to all image classes to improve file handling.

Changed

Added methods getPages and getPageCount to class AbstractSpread.
Added method getElements to class Page.
Added method removeElement to class Page.
Added method isSinglePage to class Preference.
IDML-Creator sets the preference attributes PreserveLayoutWhenShuffling and AllowPageShuffle by its own depending on the page count and layout mode. This improves the handling of pages in InDesign.

2.19.0 2022-11-14

Changed

Updated the InDesignVersion enum to the latest InDesign version with the property INDESIGN_2023. IDML files will contain the new version number 18.0 when no other definition has been set.

2.18.1 2022-08-05

Fixed

Fixed unlikable Layers.

2.18.0 2022-05-19

Added

Gradients are now supported.

2.17.1 2022-02-11

Fixed

Fixed version number for bitandblack/qr-code.

2.17.0 2022-02-11

Fixed

Replace character / with character - in Story file names to prevent broken IDML files.
Improved rotation of elements.
Improved deprecation handling in class Content.

Changed

Sort all kind of styles by their names.

Added

Added class MixedInk to handle mixed inks.
Added possibility to handle position in Polygons.
Allow all types of page items as anchored objects.
Added class ParentSpread in addition to the current MasterSpread to follow Adobes inclusive language.
Added method fitFrameToContent.

2.16.0 2021-10-27

Changed

Updated the InDesignVersion enum to the latest InDesign version with the property INDESIGN_2022. IDML files will contain the new version number 17.0 when no other definition has been set.

2.15.0 2021-10-06

Added

HEX colors can now be added too.
Polygons are ready to use now.
Added methods getCharacterStyle and setCharacterStyle to CharacterStyleRange.
Added method addContent to CharacterStyleRange to allow adding content to a later point.
Added method addCharacterStyleRange to ParagraphStyleRange to allow adding content to a later point.
The document indent can now be defined as Web, Print or Mobile. It may be added when initializing a Content object. This effects the color space and the default black which will be in CMYK or RGB now. Default is Print.

Changed

Changed deprecation messages, so they are using error level E_USER_DEPRECATION now.
Story::setContent has been replaced with Story::addContent.
Page elements are not rendered until the page itself is rendered. This has been changed to allow page elements to be changed after they have been attached to a page.
The annotation reader has been moved. This means that it's no longer needed to create a Content object at first before using any other classes.

2.14.1 2021-01-13

Added

Added missing values in class CharacterStyle.

2.14.0 2020-11-30

Added

Added the Oval class to create circles and ovals.

Changed

Added support for PHP 8.

2.13.0 2020-11-03

Added

The InDesignVersion Enum supports now version 2021.
Images can be embedded into an IDML document now. This can be done with the new embedImage() method. It is available in the classes Image, EPS, PDF and SVG.
IDML-Creator can add meta information to an IDML now. The new class MetaData provides some methods for adding authors and contact information.
When using an image without setting its source, the ImageSrcNotSetException will be thrown now.

2.12.5 2020-10-14

Fixed

Fixed wrong variable type.

2.12.4 2020-10-14

Fixed

Added missing attribute fillColor to class Image.

2.12.3 2020-10-13

Fixed

Added missing getters.

2.12.2 2020-10-02

Fixed

The library bitandblack/composer-helper has been updated, and it's usage too. This fixes some incompatibilities with different environments.

2.12.1 2020-10-01

Changed

Updated library bitandblack/image-information to ^1.5 to make ext-imagick optional.

2.12.0 2020-09-29

Fixed

Fixed several bugs that could result in wrongly placed elements when rotating them.

Added

Added the possibility to set the blend mode and all related settings for Rectangles, GraphicLines, Polygons and TextFrames. This works with the new TransparencySetting class.
Groups are now possible by using the new class IDML\Content\Group.
PDFs can now be places using the PDF class. Crop mode and the page can be defined.
Added class TransformAttributeOption to improve the work with ObjectStyles.

Changed

When adding elements to a Page, there's only one method for all elements: addElement.
The IDML\Content\CalculatorTrait has been replaced with the Calculator class.
Spread::insertPage() has been replaced with Spread::addPage().
Content::addDesignMap() has been replaced with Content::setDesignMap().
Page::addTextFrame() has been replaced with Page::addElement().
Page::addRectangle() has been replaced with Page::addElement().
Page::addGraphicLine() has been replaced with Page::addElement().
TextWrapPreference::setTextWrapOffset() has been replaced with TextWrapPreference::setTopOffset(), TextWrapPreference::setRightOffset(), TextWrapPreference::setBottomOffset() and TextWrapPreference::setLeftOffset().
It is no longer possible to add duplicates to the IDML\Content class.
Enums are now final.
The QRCode class has some setters and getters now.
The style classes CellStyle, CharacterStyle, ObjectStyle, ParagraphStyle, and TableStyle have a second parameter in their method setBasedOn(). If set to true, the inheritance will actively change to children's classes values. The inheritance can by manually triggered by calling the method updateInheritance(). Also, there's a new method addChild() what is the opposite of setBasedOn().

2.11.1 2020-02-24

Fixed

Changes of the namespace in bitandblack/idml-writer caused error messages. This has been fixed now.

2.11.0 2020-02-18

Added

GREP expressions can be added to Paragraph Styles now.
Added possibility to set a characters as subscript or superscript in two ways:
1. Instead of adding new Text() into a CharacterStyleRange new Subscript() or new Superscript() can be used.
2. CharacterStyles have setPosition() now. Its values come from the Position Enum.

2.10.0 2020-02-13

Added

A lot of Enums have been added.
Variable fonts can be used now. See example/variable-fonts.php for a use case.
SVG images can be added now.
The color of borders above and below a paragraph can be set.
Paragraphs can have borders and shadings now.
Paragraphs can have column rules now.

Changed

When a property has been set with the help of an Enum, its getter method will also return the Enum.
In class Content some setters have been renamed to make their behaviour clearer:
- addDesignMap to setDesignMap
- addTag to setTag
- addBackingStory to setBackingStory
- addContainer to setContainer
- addPreference to setPreference
- getContainers to getContainer
- getBackingStories to getBackingStory
composer.lock has been removed. Also some dependencies have been updated.

2.9.4 2020-02-07

Changed

In class ParagraphStyle the property strikeThru is now from type bool.

Fixed

A lot of properties and methods in class ParagraphStyle had int values when they should be float. This has been fixed now.

2.9.3 2019-12-09

Fixed

Fixed wrong color value in QR codes when no foreground color was set.

2.9.2 2019-12-03

Fixed

Fixed a bug that caused empty content elements.

2.9.1 2019-11-26

Fixed

Fixed handling of spanned or splitted columns and added SpanColumnType to define the column type in paragraph styles.
Fixed the handling of special characters.

2.9.0 2019-11-22

Added

Added a lot of classes for a better handling of special characters. They are all under the namespace IDML\Content\SpecialChars:

AutoPageNumber
EndNestedStyleHere
IndentToHere
NextPageNumber
NonJoinerCharacter
PreviousPageNumber
RightIndentTab
SectionMarker
Tabulator.php

All of them can be used inside a CharacterStyleRange, for example:

<?php

use IDML\Content\Story\Story;
use IDML\Content\Story\ParagraphStyleRange;
use IDML\Content\Story\CharacterStyleRange;
use IDML\Content\SpecialChars\AutoPageNumber;

$story = new Story();
$story->setContent(
    new ParagraphStyleRange(
        null,
        new CharacterStyleRange(
            null,
            new AutoPageNumber()
        )       
    )
);

Changed

Tabulators have been refactored and can be used with the new class IDML\Content\Style\Tabulator.

To make it clearer that multiple tabulators can be added to a paragraph style, the method setTabulator has been renamed to addTabulator.

Table of Contents

Changelog

5.4.0 2025-10-28

Changed

5.3.0 2025-10-08

Added

5.2.1 2025-05-23

Fixed

5.2.0 2025-05-23

Changed

5.1.0 2025-02-22

Changed

5.0.0 2024-12-19

Changed

4.2.0 2024-10-14

Changed

4.1.1 2024-09-03

Fixed

4.1.0 2024-07-30

Fixed

Added

4.0.0 2024-02-08

Changed

Added

Before

After

3.10.0 2025-10-02

Changed

3.9.0 2024-10-14

Changed

3.8.2 2024-09-03

Fixed

3.8.1 2024-07-30

Fixed

3.8.0 2024-06-27

Added

3.7.2 2024-06-13

Fixed

3.7.1 2024-06-13

Added

3.7.0 2024-06-13

Added

3.6.0 2024-01-23

Changed

3.5.0 2023-12-14

Changed

Added

3.4.1 2023-11-30

Fixed

3.4.0 2023-11-23

Fixed

Changed

Added

3.3.0 2023-10-27

Added

Fixed

3.2.0 2023-10-17

Changed

Added

3.1.0 2023-10-12

Changed

3.0.1 2023-10-06

Fixed

3.0.0 2023-07-18

Changed

2.22.0 2024-01-23

Changed

2.21.0 2023-07-07

Changed

2.20.0 2023-02-01

Fixed

Changed

2.19.0 2022-11-14

Changed

2.18.1 2022-08-05

Fixed

2.18.0 2022-05-19

Added

2.17.1 2022-02-11

Fixed