The official release notes for EasyCatalog 2026 can be found here. This is a summary highlighting the most interesting new features.

EasyCatalog 2026 brings a series of improvements that make working with data sources, layouts, and automation in InDesign even more efficient. The update is not a minor maintenance release, but a significant step forward, especially for those who work on advanced projects or make extensive use of tables, scripting, and pagination.

New features that really save time

1. Replace Record

A small but very useful addition: Replace Record allows you to replace all links from one record with those from another record. Ideal for multilingual projects where records share the same structure but have different content.

2. Improved HTML parser with CSS support

The updated parser now supports basic CSS styling, such as font, color, and formatting variations. This means that HTML fields not only look more consistent, but also better match your InDesign layout.

3. Frame Options for fields

You can now add Frame Options to the field settings. This opens the door to smart applications, such as automatically adding Alt text to images or executing scripts as soon as an image is placed.

4. Alpha Channel for clipping paths

Images can now use the Alpha Channel as a clipping path by default. No more manual selection: EasyCatalog recognizes this automatically, including settings for threshold and tolerance.

5. Smarter pagination of anchored items

One of the biggest innovations: Anchored Pagination. You can now automatically repeat objects for each record, group, or table row. Perfect for product overviews with icons, labels, or badges that vary per item.

Workflow and performance improvements

Colors for configurations

Working on projects with multiple configurations? You can now color code them. A small detail that makes a big difference in clarity.

New Command Parser (v2)

The new parser for Custom Fields works noticeably faster and more efficiently. The old one remains available for compatibility, but v2 is clearly the future.

Optimized Advanced Preferences

The settings have been revamped: clearer names, icons for on/off options, and a better search function. Less searching, more finding.

Better Barcodes and Edge Detection

Barcodes can now be assigned a color swatch, and the recognition of frame edges (Edge Relationships) has become much more precise.

Improved Guide-based Pagination

You can now choose where pagination starts (top, bottom, left, or right) and in which direction it continues. This gives you much more control over complex layouts.

And more…

Dozens of bug fixes and minor improvements have been added. These include faster reporting, better memory management, support for CSS colors, and performance improvements for tables and scripts.

Those who work with EasyCatalog Enterprise or Lua scripting will notice that some doors have been opened on that side as well, including better support for custom data providers and globally accessible configurations.