“Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing software application produced by Adobe Systems.” It is used by professional graphic designers and typographers on a daily basis. It does many things well, but it does not provide a good OpenType feature user interface. What it does provide is, in fact, abysmal. This has frustrated many of us over the years.

This frustration has recently come to a head with the I Love Typography Better UI for Better Typography petition reaching over 1,300 signatures. Yves Peters has also written an excellent summary of the situation, explaining why a better OpenType user interface matters.

I like InDesign. I think it’s a good application. However, as a maker and seller of fonts, it pains me that a poor interface hinders and obfuscates the OpenType features I build into my fonts. I am certain all other type foundries feel the same. I would love InDesign — and all OpenType-savvy apps — to honour and respect the work we put into our fonts. This also means respecting the user, whether she be a student or professional.

Gerry Leonidas says “prototyping the proposed interface will need to be done in an app-agnostic way, and from a document designer perspective.” He’s absolutely right. My proposals are therefore not limited to InDesign. Anyone is free to steal these ideas.