CJK spacing, line breaking and imported rules
A detailed reference for imported text controls, supported composition rules, font requirements and explicit compatibility limitations.
Applies to Design 0.8.0 on doc.et.
These are composition and import notes, not a claim of identical InDesign typography. Some controls are retained in files without being fully reproduced.
Understand the imported layout#
CJK layout includes character spacing and line-breaking rules beyond a font choice. Design preserves many imported controls and applies a supported subset. A stored setting can survive export even when its visual rule is not executed.
Supported composition rules#
| Rule | Behavior and coverage |
|---|---|
| Composite fonts | Character mappings, component family/style, relative size, scales and baseline shift |
| Leading/trailing aki | Explicit em spacing without outline scaling; inherited resets and IDML round trip |
| Kerning import | Automatic methods take precedence over inactive numeric values; the 1e11 sentinel cannot become manual spacing |
| Tsume | Compress nonnegative glyph sidebearings without scaling ink |
| Jidori | Fixed group width with protected internal boundaries and justification advances |
| Kinsoku sets | Custom character sets and independent common punctuation defaults for named sets; explicit disabling retained |
| Bunri kinshi / rensuuji | Protect repeated dash/ellipsis pairs and numeric sequences |
| Hanging punctuation | Regular/forced edge allowance integrated with line breaking and placement |
| Ideographic spaces | Paragraph switch controls whether fullwidth spaces participate in word spacing |
| Em alignment / leading | Em top/center/bottom alignment and baseline reference offsets |
| Kenten / glyph forms | Preserve emphasis character, shape it with font fallback; map supported OpenType forms |
| Tate-chu-yoko offsets | Carry horizontal/vertical offsets through the existing vertical group placement |
Compatibility boundaries#
- Mojikumi: definitions, base-set names, all override rows and paragraph references survive import/export. The numeric character-class spacing tables and their compression priorities are not executed. Preflight reports this explicitly.
- Kinsoku push-in/push-out priorities: retained, but not used in candidate selection. Preflight reports this explicitly. Boundary prohibition alone is not equivalent to implementing this priority policy.
- Named kinsoku defaults are clean-room common punctuation rules, not verified reproductions of every vendor preset. Explicit custom tables take precedence.
- ICF alignment currently uses font ascender/descender metrics; exact ideographic character-face metrics are not implemented. CenterDown currently shares the center leading reference. These require separate compatibility work.
- Jidori groups are scoped to resolved shaping runs. Mixed component-font or style changes inside one intended group need a group model above shaping.
- Frame-grid composition and detailed ruby/warichu controls are outside this change.
Preserving a parameter is not evidence that its visual rule has been implemented. Missing fonts, missing links and overset remain separate preflight findings; removing unsupported-rule warnings to produce a clean report is not acceptable.
Review a publication before exporting#
- Check that the required fonts are available and that combining marks remain attached to their base characters.
- Inspect line starts, line ends and narrow columns at a readable zoom.
- Review the preflight findings, including unsupported composition rules as well as missing fonts, links and overset text.
- Compare an exported proof with the intended layout and keep the editable source.
A clean-looking first page is not enough to validate a long publication. Examine pages with mixed scripts, tables, unusual punctuation and style changes as well.
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Sources and edition notes
Adapted for the browser edition from the pinned Designcraft 0.8.0 source. Upstream documentation may also describe desktop workflows.
- docs/cjk-typography.md — Adapted from the upstream documentation for this pinned release.
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