All plug-ins and renderers can be started without Python. The Python installation is checked only when Python is really needed (i.e. when a script starts with #!py). If the installation is missing, Python scripts return the error 1. For the first Python script, a corresponding warning message is also shown. The following Python versions are expected:

By the way, you can have any other, even newer Python version(s) installed. These versions are ignored by the priint:comet plug-ins and by comet_pdf.

Please note: In contrast to v4.x, v5.0 requires the Python version 3.12.

Whether a program can be executed depends more on the Operating System than on the hardware:

Executability Until Catalina
Mac OS X 10.15		 Since Big Sur, Mac OS 11
Intel M-Series
Intel-Only Software Yes Yes Rosetta 2
Universal Software No Yes, in Intel Mode Yes, in ARM Mode

We support Universal software from InDesign® and Illustrator® 2022 onwards. The Finder information of all of our plug-ins contains a corresponding note whether the plugin is Intel or Universal.

For the installation of the plug-ins we strongly recommend the installers provided by WERK II:

If a manual installation is necessary for any reason, it is important to replace all (but not more) plug-ins. Replacing individual plug-ins of different releases will crash InDesign®. Here you can find complete zip sets of the plug-ins:

All plug-ins are checked against malware by Apple. However, since you did not get the plug-ins from the App Store, it is necessary to change the security settings of your System Settings:

  1. Choose Privacy & Security in the sidebar
  2. Click General on the top.
  3. Under the point Allow apps downloaded from select Choose App Store and identified developers.

Because this file contains entries from our bug tracking system, the content of this file is partly in German.

The table describes the features and bug fixes of the priint:comet ID 5.0 plug-ins.

Revision    Case Description

v5.0 R35572

16.10.2024

 First Release of v5.0

We are pleased to present the First release of version 5 of the priint:comet ID plugins here.

cScript Tracer

With version 5.0, the priint:comet plugins offer a debugger-like tool to trace cScripts step by step. The tracer is running your Internet browser. More information can be found here.

Python improvements

General improvements:

  • All plug-ins new use Python 3.12. For more information see here.
  • Debugging is now available. For more information see here.
  • Performance improvements of up to several hundred percent when running many scripts.
  • Support for serial placeholders.
  • Improved documentation - Added dark mode, improved readability, added several examples, restructuring.
  • CPageItem.getType can now return whether a pageitem is a text on a path.
  • CFrame.setImage has new constants for image placement (backwards compatible).

Breaking changes:

See porting guide for more information.

  • Constants moved from comet module to comet.constants module.
  • prefs.setPanelEnabled has been deprecated.
  • CGroup.getGroup has been removed.

New modules:

New classes:

New functions:
Smaller 'Placeholder Options'

TW 3084138

The panel Placeholder Options can now be reduced to a smaller size using the 'Details' button. The selected size is retained when restarting.

Articles Structure to W2ML

TW 3053960

In the InDesign® Articles panel, the frames of a document can be grouped into articles. This article structure is then used for the export to Accessible PDFs (PDF/UA). Since comet_pdf supports the Accessibility Tags for PDF/UA since v5.0, we also add the articles structure into W2ML now.

Articles Script Support

TW 3052499

For the accessibility structure of the final PDFs we also need to have script support of the articles structure of the documents. The following functions are available now for this purpose:

Alternative Text for Frames

TW 3045637

In InDesign®, an 'Alt Text' can be defined for a frame via the Object Export Options ... -> Object Export Options dialog. This definition is inserted into the accessibility structure of the PDF in PDF export. We now also support this in cScript and in comet_pdf.

string::rfind

TW 3149045

Using string::rfind you can search backwards in strings.

Please note: Unlike string::find, this function does not support regular expressions!

TW 3149041 - textmodel::get_frame_containing returns wrong column number

Unfortunately, the function textmodel::get_frame_containing always returns the wrong number of columns. The results are always something like -4294967295 or -4294967296.

The problem is solved now.

TW 3060558 - The 'Reset' button of Placeholder Options crashes InDesign

When I click the Reset button at the bottom left of panel Placeholder Options, InDesign crashes immediately and reproducibly.

The error does not occur if a Python script was executed at least once before the reset. When the button is clicked, all cached Python information should also be reset (with a Python script). But without a previous call, Python is not yet initialized.

The error has been fixed.

TW 3090945 - What do the small arrows next to the panel names mean?

There are always two small arrows next to the names of the panels:

When I click on it, the size of the panel changes twice, the third time the panel is collapsed. Etc.

The arrows are for the so-called detail views of the panels, which are shown in rotation.In the priint:comet plugins, this is only supported by the Placeholder Options panel. We have now removed these details arrows from the other panels.

TW 3053984 - Username of frame missing in W2ML import of InDesign

The so called username of a frame is not set into the W2ML export of a document. The username is shown (and can be set there) in the 'Layers' panel. By cScript you can use the functions frame::get/set_name and interactive::set/get_pdf_option with type kPDFFieldName.

This is done now. To read/re-write this setting, you also have to use comet_pdf of v5.0.