What's new in Adobe XD

The December 2018 release of XD has the following new exciting features:

• Improved collaboration with cloud-native documents and linked symbols
• Faster and precision designs with flipped objects
• Productivity gains using search in layers panel
• Preview linked symbol on canvas

Enhancements include improved:

• UI changes pertaining to share workflow in XD
• Visual fidelity with retained layers from Adobe Illustrator
• Prototype viewing on mobile devices
• SVG export
• Wacom and touch support
• Web Comments UI Affordance

Adobe XD introduces cloud documents, a new cloud-native document type that provides you with a fast and convenient method to manage, share and keep documents up to date. Cloud documents are automatically saved so they’re up to date and accessible even when you are offline across various devices. Cloud documents also support cross-document assets, which allows you to link the symbols in one local file to another source file on the local file system.

You can also link an asset (linked symbols) from a:

• Cloud document to either another Cloud document or a local file.
• Local document into a Cloud document.

For more information, see Cloud documents in XD and Working with cloud documents.

Use flipped objects feature to flip objects vertically or horizontally. Flip works on all basic elements except artboard, repeat grid, and symbols and accounts for the current rotation of the object when applied.

For more information, see Flip objects.

You can use the search and filter feature in the layers panel to search by layer names or filter layers by text, shapes and images categories. The search experience is optimized to show only relevant layers and artboards containing the keyword, without the layers structure (e.g. expanded groups). This can be extremely helpful when working auto-animating layers between artboards.

For more information, see Work with layers.

You can now preview linked symbol updates on canvas before committing them by rolling over the linked symbol update icon in the Assets panel.

For more information, see Preview linked symbol updates.

• New Share Document menu
• Publish Prototype is now Share for Review
• Publish Design Specs is now Share for Development
• Manage Published Links is now Manage Links

When copy pasting assets from Ai into XD, layers’ visual fidelity, structure and effects are retained as they were designed in Ai. This workflow is now on par with Ai import.

Use the new option File > Import option to add Photoshop or Illustrator content into an existing XD document when converting Illustrator and Photoshop content. Additionally, smart objects when converted remain fully editable (instead of being flattened), and Photoshop adjustment layers are now preserved.

For more information, see Working with external assets.

We’ve added several improvements when viewing prototypes in a mobile web browser including a full screen default mode, and pinch to reveal navigation arrows, home button, prototype info, and report a concern.

For more information, Preview on mobile devices.

When exporting .svg elements fromin XD or from Design Specs we’ve now give you the option  to export with “Presentation Attributes” styling, improving the compatibility with common development scenarios such as using SVGs exported from XD in Android Studio.

For more information, see Working with external assets.

Adobe XD now supports two-finger rotation of selected objects on touch-screen Windows devices, Mac trackpads and Wacom tablets, touchpad and touch ring.

On opening either a web prototype or design Spec, you will now see a grey marker with count on top of the comment icon present in right rail. The count represents total number of un-resolved comment threads on an artboard. Adding a new comment or marking an existing comment as resolved, will update the count accordingly.

For more information, see Share prototypes, design specs, and cloud documents and Use design specs published from Adobe XD.

The October 2018 release of XD has the following new exciting features:

• Design and prototype using voice commands and speech playback
• Authoring and playback with auto-animate and drag gestures
• Cross-document asset sharing with linked symbols
• Design tooling innovation through plugins
• Seamless assets transfer with After Effects and Illustrator
• Win10 live device preview on iOS

Adobe XD provides an easy-to-use solution that lets you use voice commands to trigger an interaction between artboards. Like using a Click or a Tap as a Trigger, you can use Voice to trigger a prototype interaction and Speech Playback as a triggered action. Speech playback gives you access to a powerful text-to-speech engine that helps you design for new platforms like voice assistants and smart speakers. For more information, see Voice design and prototyping.

To learn more about using voice commands and speech playback, check this video.

Auto-Animate allows you to easily create prototypes with immersive animated transitions. Simply duplicate an artboard, modify object properties, such as size, position, rotation, and apply an Auto-Animate action to create an animated transition between artboards. To use Auto-Animate, ensure that the objects you want to animate have the same layer name between two artboards. For more information, see Create prototypes using auto-animate.

Drag Gesture in XD takes the Auto-Animate feature one step further by allowing you to simulate the drag experience of touch-enabled devices. For more information, see Drag gestures at work.

To learn more about Auto-Animate, check this video.

As design teams grow within organizations coupled with the ever-increasing design surfaces, designers need to collaborate to create consistent and scalable designs. With Linked Symbols, designers can share symbols across documents and ensure that they are always up to date.

Linked Symbols allow you to create and maintain a single source of truth for UI kits, sticker sheets or style guides, and use them in other Adobe XD documents. When you modify a Linked Symbol in the source document, XD notifies documents with instances of that Linked Symbol with those updates. From there, you can preview the changes and choose to accept or reject them. For more information, see Work with linked symbols.

To learn more about Linked Symbols, check this video.

Adobe XD launches the first wave of plugins that helps you automate tasks, integrate with other tools, leverage data in your designs, and much more. This also includes integrations with some of the best collaboration and productivity apps in the market, including Slack, JIRA, and Microsoft Teams.

For information on getting started with plugins, see Plugins for XD.

From Adobe XD 13.0, you can transfer layout designs and assets from Illustrator by opening. ai files from within Adobe XD. The new fast and convenient workflow helps you to seamlessly transfer assets with native mapping of layers, artboards, artwork, and vectors with best visual fidelity, and streamline collaborative environments in different stages of UX process. For more information, see Open Illustrator files in XD.

Feature benefits:

• Seamless usage of Illustrator assets in prototypes: transfer icons, logos, and other vector assets into XD and use UI Kits or full libraries created in Illustrator yet retain layers, with full editability and visual fidelity.
• Collaborate to create interactive designs: open Illustrator files in XD and use XD’s powerful prototyping and collaboration features.

To learn more about Illustrator integration, check this video.

With Adobe XD 13.0, you can easily export XD designs (selected layers or whole artboards) into After Effects to create custom UI animations and micro-interactions. You can seamlessly export layers, artboards, artwork, and vectors with equal visual fidelity and use After Effect’s powerful plugin ecosystem to streamline your collaboration with the developers. For more information, see Exporting assets to After Effects.

Feature benefits:

• Get full control of your animations: Designers can use After Effects to create custom animations and micro-interactions, tweak transitions, or use video assets in your designs.
• Seamless asset transfer: With this integration, you can enjoy quick asset transfer and native mapping of layers, vectors, and artwork resulting in faster turnaround from design to custom animations.
• Leverage plugins: You can extend your animations and collaboration with developers by using After Effects’ plugin ecosystem tailored for UX design process.

From XD 13.0 onwards, designers with Windows OS can use a USB connection to preview their designs on iOS. For more information, see Preview on mobile devices.