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2026

GraFx Studio and Platform: Subject types, Brand Kit sync, and improvements

GraFx Studio icon CHILI GraFx icon v1.41

✨ New & Improved

Subject types for Smart Crop

You can now assign a subject type to an asset — a classification (for example: person, product, or logo) that tells GraFx Studio what kind of subject the image contains. When Smart Crop is active, the subject type influences how the crop is applied, for more predictable results across image categories. The subject type is also visible in the media details view alongside the asset's other metadata.

Learn more: Smart Crop subject types (concept) · Select a Subject type on a frame · Set a Subject Area per subject type

Subject type management in the Platform

Subject types are now managed centrally in CHILI GraFx. A dedicated Subject types page lets environment admins define and maintain the list available across their environment, and the assigned subject type is shown on the media details view in the platform.

Learn more: Manage Subject Types

Brand Kit sync

Brand Kits in GraFx Studio can now stay in sync with their source Brand Kit. In the Brand Kit panel, an auto-sync toggle keeps templates aligned automatically when you open a template or the panel, and a manual sync button lets you pull the latest Brand Kit changes on demand — no re-import needed.

Learn more: Keep a Brand Kit in sync

🔧 Improvements

Clearer feedback on autogrow interactions

Two new info messages make the Template Designer more transparent when autogrow is active:

  • Enabling constrain proportions on an autogrow frame now shows an info message explaining that frame handles aren't available on layouts where autogrow is active.
  • Rotation on an autogrow frame shows a similar info message explaining that rotation isn't available on those layouts.

Learn more: Auto-grow on text frames

🛠️ Fixes

  • PDF overprint — embedding PDF assets that contain overprint statements no longer strips the overprint from the final PDF output. See Embedded PDF assets.
  • Image variable metadata mappings — metadata mappings on image variables can now be updated after being set for the first time.

New Data Connector: CSV

GraFx Studio icon

A new data connector is available in GraFx Studio — the CSV Data Connector. It lets you use any publicly accessible CSV file as a data source for your templates, with no authentication required.

✨ New & Improved

CSV Data Connector

Connect a CSV file to your template by pasting its public URL into the connector configuration. GraFx Studio reads the column headers and maps them to template variables automatically.

Supported out of the box: comma and semicolon delimiters, quoted fields, Excel UTF-8 exports, and automatic type inference per column — text, number, date, and boolean.

Records are browsable in Run Mode and the Studio UI.

Hosting requirement

The CSV file must be served with a Content-Type: application/json response header. This is a runtime constraint of the connector framework — the file content itself is unaffected. Any static host where you can set response headers (S3, Azure Blob, CDN) will work.

More info

CSV Data Connector

New Connector: Bynder

GraFx Studio icon

✨ New & Improved

Bynder media connector now available

The Bynder connector is now available in the Connector Hub. Once installed, your GraFx Studio templates can browse and use assets directly from your Bynder DAM — no manual uploads required.

The connector supports OAuth 2.0 authentication, metadata mapping, and filtering by collection or folder view. Assets are accessible both when placing images on the canvas and through image variables.

Bynder Connector documentation

Adobe InDesign and Photoshop Plugin Update v1.3.0

GraFx Studio icon

Version 1.3.0 adds text column support, bullet and numbered lists, and improved handling of nested frames and locked layers — with fidelity fixes across both plugins.

✨ New & Improved

Adobe InDesign Plugin

  • Text columns — text frames with multiple columns now export with their column structure intact.
  • Bullet and numbered lists — list content is now exported. Indentation may differ slightly and exact numbered markers may not be preserved.
  • Nested text frames — text frames nested inside other text frames are handled; a preflight warning lets you convert to PDF or ignore.
  • Nested frames in shapes — frames inside shapes are detected and included in the preflight report, with the same Convert to PDF or Ignore options.
  • Locked layers — locked layers are now exported as PDF instead of being skipped.
  • Enhanced preflight messages — warnings are more specific and easier to act on.

Adobe Photoshop Plugin

  • Text columns — text layers with column layouts are now supported during export.
  • Bullet and numbered lists — list content is exported, with the same indentation and marker caveats as InDesign.
  • Enhanced preflight warnings — more detail on unsupported effects. Note: some effect names differ from Photoshop's UI (e.g. Satin appears as chromeFX).

🛠️ Fixes

InDesign: frame opacity for shapes; shapes with modified paths; position of rotated triangles; linked (threaded) text frames; crop of locked image layers; image crop in custom shapes.

Photoshop: export of shapes without a strokeStyle object; rounding of numeric properties during conversion.

More info

GraFx Studio: Components, image crop, and improvements

GraFx Studio icon v1.40

✨ New & Improved

Components — build once, reuse everywhere

Components are reusable design elements you can place inside templates. Design a pricing block, product ad, or any branded element once — then reuse it across as many templates as you need. Update a component and every template that uses it updates automatically.

Place components from the Resources panel, use multiple instances per page, and map each instance to its own set of template variables. Each component has its own layouts, Brand Kit, variables, and actions.

Choose how a component fills its frame: Scale (matches by aspect ratio), Resize (uses anchoring and copyfitting), or Scale and resize (combines both).

Variable mapping is per instance — a template with three instances of the same component can give each its own independent data.

Image crop constraint for end users

Template designers can now control whether end users may crop images within a frame. Disabled by default, this is a per-frame setting. When enabled, users see a crop icon and can drag the image within the frame — frame size and position stay fixed.

For Fit, Fill, or Smart crop frames: each image gets its own individual crop. For Manual crop frames: the crop area is shared across all images in the frame.

Connector shared header value

Connector developers can now set a header value that applies across all instances sharing the same remote connector ID — useful for passing a shared API key or session token once, without configuring it per instance.

Font size constraint enabled by default

When text editing constraints are enabled on a text frame, the font size constraint is now on by default. Previously it was off, which could cause unexpected results when restricting all text editing properties.

🐛 Fixed

  • Missing font no longer crashes output — output now continues with a fallback if a referenced font is unavailable.
  • Images can now be assigned to frames with Smart crop — a regression had blocked new image assignments to Smart crop frames.
  • Image crop in Manual crop mode now saves correctly — crop settings in Run Mode were not being saved for Manual crop frames.
  • Datasource modal error state — the modal now correctly shows empty or error state when the datasource returns no data.
  • Text constraints rotation label — a typo in the rotation info message has been corrected.
  • Connector token refresh for auth type "none" — the token refresh flow now correctly handles connectors with no authentication configured.
  • getPageSnapshot now returns meaningful errors — invalid page ID calls now return a clear error instead of an opaque response. Note: page IDs changed from integers to GUIDs in a previous release — integrations hardcoding a numeric page ID will need to be updated.

CHILI GraFx Environment API Update

rn_icon

✨ New & Improved

Template creation and modification dates now available via API

You can now retrieve DateCreated and LastModifiedContentUtc for templates directly from the API — making it easier to track when a template was first created and when its content was last changed.

Both fields are available on the template list and the individual template endpoints:

GET /api/v1/environment/{environmentId}/templates
GET /api/v1/environment/{environmentId}/templates/{templateId}

This is useful for integrations that need to sort templates by recency, detect changes since a last sync, or display audit information in a connected system.

More info

Read more in the Developer Center

CHILI GraFx Environment API Update

CHILI GraFx icon

✨ New & Improved

Tags endpoints now available in the public API

Tags let you label and organize templates so they're easier to find and filter across large template libraries. The Tags API endpoints are now part of the public Environment API, making it possible to manage tags programmatically — create, update, delete, and assign tags to templates as part of your integration or automation workflow.

See Tags and the Environment API reference

Connector updates and platform UX improvements

CHILI GraFx icon

✨ New & Improved

Update notifications for connectors

When a new version of an installed connector is available, a notification badge now appears on the connector in both the connector list and the connector settings. You can see at a glance which connectors have an update ready — without having to check each one individually.

See Connector Version Updates

Set as default moved to the connector list

The Set as default option has moved from inside connector settings to the three-dot menu on the connector list. This puts the action right where you're already managing your connectors, making it faster to designate a default without navigating into settings. The option is disabled if the connector is already set as default.

See Set a Default Connector

Dates in environment tables now show your local timezone

Date and time values in environment-level tables — such as Tags and Output tasks — now display in your local timezone rather than UTC. Hover over any date to see the original server time in a tooltip.

New resources sorted by newest first

Tags, output settings, output tasks, user interfaces, integrations, and subject types now default to sorting by creation date descending. The most recently added items appear at the top, so you can find new additions without scrolling through older entries.

🛠️ Fixes

  • Connector Browser authentication — Setting Browser authentication to [None] while a Server authentication type was already configured incorrectly triggered a validation error. This has been resolved. Browser and Server authentication can now be managed independently without interfering with each other.