Hello, can anyone tell me how I can get my script to detect overlapping objects?

Is there any script that can take a selection or multiple selections and make artboards from those selections and so the artboards fit perfectly to the selection ?

Hi,

I am new to scripting. I am desperately need help from anyone that could guide me with some scrip that i can use to enable illustrator CC to automatically check spelling just like it does in Indesign.

May be this is a little too much to ask, but your help mean so much to me.

Thank you.

My script is working nice until I try to export my document. I am trying to export my document as a DXF file.  Using the Illustrator CS6 Scripting Reference I am using the TIFF export as a reference as there are no examples for exporting as a DXF (my luck!).  This is what I have in VBscript.  With this script I get the following error on the second to last line:

"Illegal argument - argument 2 - Enumerated value expected"

As you can see I do have one: "0" so I suspect the error lies elsewhere in the code?  I'll take a JavaScript example if you are not into VBscript since the two look very similar and I think I can adapt it.

Set App = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application")

Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Dim dest

dest = "S:\SOCAL\Section_32\Veg DXFs LC\SOCAL_CK67_pineLC"

Set DXFexport = CreateObject("Illustrator.ExportOptionsAutoCAD")

    If App.Documents.Count > 0 Then

        Set docRef = App.ActiveDocument

        Call docRef.Export (dest, 0, DXFexport)      ' 0 = aiDXF

    End If

I'm trying to create a script in CS5 mac os10.6.8 that will change the fill color of selected pathItems. I need a simple script that will change a selected pathItem to cmyk values 2,3,15,0. I will then select this script and implement the action in a batch of 600 files.

I wish this process could be recorded as an action but when I record the action "add new swatch" I have to manually input the cmyk values, which will take forever for a batch of over 600 files.

I have a drawn rectangle on an illustrator document. In the layers menu I have given it a specific path name (outerBox). I would like to select this item and return its particular properties eg height, width, colour etc. How would I do this.

Thanks

Bob

I know about the various sample scripts, but does there exist a source of open and free scripts that are popular?

So I looked around but could not find anything on here. I basically have a script that needs to select 3 text objects, then outline them, then set the group to overprint. I have been getting close to solving it, but I can't really figure out the overprint part. I was hoping that it would carry over if I set the text as overprint before I outlined them, but it didn't help. so I basically need to set the overprint on a Group, or I could loop through and set the overprint on the compound paths inside that group. any ideas?

I want to export artboards as PNG files in a JavaScript. In the past I used the ExportOptionsPNG24, but font comes out fussy in small sizes.

Is there a way to script the export-as-feature in Illustrator? (File > Export as > PNG with artboards and anti-aliasing/Type optimized)

I haven’t found anything in the scripting reference 2017:

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/illustrator/sdk/CC2017/Illustrator_ JavaScript_Scripting_Reference.pdf (edited)

Any hints welcome. I just want to know, if it's possible. No need for a final script. ;-)

app.executeMenuCommand(StringFromListBelow); 

actualsize

Add Anchor Points2

AddArrowHeads2

Adjust Colors Dialog

Adjust3

Adobe Action Palette

Adobe Actions Batch

Adobe AI Device center

Adobe AI Save For Web

Adobe Apply Last Effect

Adobe Art Style Plugin Other libraries menu item

Adobe Bridge Browse

Adobe BrushManager Menu Item

Adobe Color Palette

Adobe Color Palette Secondary

Adobe Default Workspace

Adobe Flattening Preview

Adobe Gradient Palette

Adobe Harmony Palette

Adobe Illustrator Find Font Menu Item

Adobe Illustrator Smart Punctuation Menu Item

Adobe Last Effect

Adobe LinkPalette Menu Item

Adobe Manage Workspace

Adobe Minimal Workspace

Adobe New Fill Shortcut

Adobe New Stroke Shortcut

Adobe New Style Shortcut

Adobe New Swatch Shortcut Menu

Adobe New Symbol Shortcut

Adobe Optical Alignment Item

Adobe Paragraph Styles Palette

Adobe Save a Version

Adobe Save Workspace

Adobe Stroke Palette

Adobe Style Palette

Adobe SVG Interactivity Palette

Adobe Swatches Menu Item

Adobe Symbol Palette

Adobe Symbol Palette Plugin Other libraries menu item

Adobe Transparency Palette Menu Item

Adobe Update Link Shortcut

Adobe Variables Palette Menu Item

AdobeAlignObjects2

AdobeBrushMgr Other libraries menu item

AdobeBuiltInToolbox1

AdobeCheatSheetMenu

AdobeLayerPalette1

AdobeLayerPalette2

AdobeLayerPalette3

AdobeNavigator1

AdobeNavigator2

AdobePathfinderPalette1

AdobeSwatch_ Other libraries menu item

AdobeTransformObjects1

AI Bounding Box Toggle

AI Magic Wand

AI Object Mosaic Plug-in3

AI Place

AI Reset Bounding Box

ai_browse_for_script

AISlice Clip to Artboard

AISlice Combine

AISlice Create from Guides

AISlice Create from Selection

AISlice Delete All Slices

AISlice Divide

AISlice Duplicate

AISlice Feedback Menu

AISlice Lock Menu

AISlice Make Slice

AISlice Release Slice

AISlice Slice Options

alternate glyph palette plugin

alternate glyph palette plugin 2

Appearance of Black 1

Apply Last Filter

areatextoptions

arrangeicon

artboard

assignprofile

average

avgAndJoin

bringAllToFront

Brush Strokes menu item

cascade

centerAlign

Character Styles

Check Spelling

cleanup menu item

clear

clearguide

clearTrack

clearTypeScale

Clipping Masks menu item

close

closeAll

color

Colors3

Colors4

Colors5

Colors6

Colors7

Colors8

Colors9

compoundPath

control palette plugin

convertlegacyText

convertlegacyText1

convertlegacyText2

convertlegacyText3

convertlegacyText4

copy

Create Envelope Grid

cut

Define Pattern Menu Item

deselectall

discretHyphen

Distort2

doc-color-cmyk

doc-color-rgb

DocInfo1

document

DropShadow2

Dynamic Text

edge

Edit Custom Dictionary...

Edit Envelope Contents

editGraphData

editMask

EditOriginal Menu Item

editview

enterFocus

Envelope Options

exitFocus

Expand as Viewed

Expand Envelope

Expand Planet X

Expand Tracing

Expand3

expandStyle

export

faceSizeDown

faceSizeUp

File Handling & Clipboard 1

File Info

Find and Replace

Find Blending Mode menu item

Find Fill & Stroke menu item

Find Fill Color menu item

Find Link Block Series menu item

Find Next

Find Opacity menu item

Find Reselect menu item

Find Stroke Color menu item

Find Stroke Weight menu item

Find Style menu item

Find Symbol Instance menu item

fitall

fitHeadline

fitin

Flash Text

FlattenTransparency1

Gradient Feedback

graphDesigns

group

guidegridPref

helpcontent

hide

hide2

hideApp

hideOthers

highlightFont

highlightFont2

hyphenPref

ink

Input Text

internal palettes posing as plug-in menus-attributes

internal palettes posing as plug-in menus-character

internal palettes posing as plug-in menus-info

internal palettes posing as plug-in menus-opentype

internal palettes posing as plug-in menus-paragraph

internal palettes posing as plug-in menus-tab

Inverse menu item

join

justify

justifyAll

justifyCenter

justifyRight

KBSC Menu Item

keyboardPref

Knife Tool2

Last Filter

leftAlign

Live 3DExtrude

Live 3DRevolve

Live 3DRotate

Live AddArrowHeads2

Live Color Dialog

Live Deform Arc

Live Deform Arc Lower

Live Deform Arc Upper

Live Deform Arch

Live Deform Bulge

Live Deform Fish

Live Deform Fisheye

Live Deform Flag

Live Deform Inflate

Live Deform Rise

Live Deform Shell Lower

Live Deform Shell Upper

Live Deform Squeeze

Live Deform Twist

Live Deform Wave

Live DropShadow2

Live Ellipse

Live Feather

Live Free Distort

Live Inner Glow

Live Offset Path

Live Outer Glow

Live Outline Object

Live Outline Stroke

Live Pathfinder Add

Live Pathfinder Crop

Live Pathfinder Divide

Live Pathfinder Exclude

Live Pathfinder Hard Mix

Live Pathfinder Intersect

Live Pathfinder Merge

Live Pathfinder Minus Back

Live Pathfinder Outline

Live Pathfinder Soft Mix

Live Pathfinder Subtract

Live Pathfinder Trap

Live Pathfinder Trim

Live Pucker & Bloat

Live Rasterize

Live Rasterize Effect Setting

Live Rectangle

Live Roughen

Live Round3

Live Rounded Rectangle

Live Scribble and Tweak

Live Scribble Fill

Live Transform

Live Twist

Live Zig Zag

lock

lock2

lockguide

LowerCase Change Case Item

Make and Convert to Live Paint

Make and Expand

Make Envelope

make mesh

Make Planet X

Make Text Wrap

Make Tracing

Make Warp

makeguide

makeMask

Marge Planet X

minimizeWindow

navigateToNextDocument

navigateToNextDocumentGroup

navigateToPreviousDocument

navigateToPreviousDocumentGroup

new

newFromTemplate

newview

newwindow

noCompoundPath

OffsetPath2

OffsetPath3

open

outline

Overprint2

pagetiling

Paint Tracing

paste

pasteBack

pasteFront

pasteInAllArtboard

pasteInPlace

PathBlend Expand

PathBlend Make

PathBlend Options

PathBlendRelease

PathBlend Replace Spine

PathBlend Reverse Spine

PathBlend Reverse Stack

PDF Presets

Planet X Options

pluginPref

preference

preview

Print

Print Presets

proofColors

proof-custom

proof-document

proof-mac-rgb

proof-monitor-rgb

proof-win-rgb

Punk2

quit

raster

Rasterize 8 menu item

redo

Registration...

Release Envelope

Release Planet X

Release Text Wrap

Release Tracing

releaseCropMarks

releaseguide

releaseMask

releaseThreadedTextSelection

Remove Anchor Points menu

removeThreading

repeatPathfinder

Replace Colors Dialog

revert

rightAlign

Roughen3

Round3

Rows and Columns....

ruler

rulerCoordinateSystem

Saturate3

save

Save for Office

saveacopy

saveas

saveasTemplate

Scribble3

selectall

selectallinartboard

Selection Hat 1

Selection Hat 10

Selection Hat 11

Selection Hat 2

Selection Hat 3

Selection Hat 4

Selection Hat 5

Selection Hat 6

Selection Hat 7

Selection Hat 8

Selection Hat 9

selectionPref

sendBackward

sendForward

sendToBack

sendToFront

Sentence case Change Case Item

setBarDesign

setCropMarks

setGraphStyle

setIconDesign

Show Gaps Planet X

Show Perspective Grid

Show Preprocessed Image

showAll

showAllWindows

ShowArtwork

showgrid

showguide

showHiddenChar

ShowNoArtwork

ShowNoImage

ShowOriginalImage

ShowPaths

ShowPathsAndTransparentArtwork

showtemplate

ShowTransparentImage

simplify menu item

sizeStepDown

sizeStepUp

snapgrid

Snapomatic on-off menu item

snappoint

snapPref

spacing

Stray Points menu item

Style Palette

SWFPresets

switchSelTool

switchUnits

systemInfo

Text Objects menu item

Text Wrap Options...

textpathtype3d

textpathtypeGravity

textpathtypeOptions

textpathtypeRainbow

textpathtypeSkew

textpathtypestairs

textthreads

threadTextCreate

tile

Title Case Change Case Item

toggleAutoHyphen

toggleLineComposer

Tracing Options

TracingPresets

tracking

Transform3

transformagain

transformmove

transformreflect

transformrotate

transformscale

transformshear

Transparency Presets

TransparencyGrid Menu Item

TrimMark2

Twirl Tool2

type-horizontal

type-vertical

undo

ungroup

unitundoPref

unlockAll

UpperCase Change Case Item

userInterfacePref

view1

view10

view2

view3

view4

view5

view6

view7

view8

view9

Welcome screen menu item

ZigZag2

zoomin

zoomin2

zoomout

When exporting projects, we use a number of PDF (and image) presets to create print ready files, proofs, and web files. The Export for Screens feature will not allow us to export multiple PDF Presets (i.e. export print ready PDFsat the same time as smallest file size PDFs). Is there a script I can use to get this much needed feature?

Much obliged,

Aadam

Since building dynamic actions is a topic unto itself, we often search for a reference thread to show somebody how to do this - and we often do so while trying to discuss work which is already involved and has nothing to do with actions or loading and playing them. Therefore I'm creating this thread to show an example and I'll paste the url to it when such questions arise.

Sometimes in Illustrator scripting we need to accomplish tasks which (sometimes counterintuitively) do not have scripting access via the DOM.

Fortunately since Illustrator CS6, they gave us the ability to play an action from a script with the app.doScript() command - which is not at all the same as Indesign's function of the same name. This one lets you play an action that exists inside the Actions panel. Immediately this may seem disappointing as users cannot be counted on to have specific actions at any given time.

However, they also gave the ability to load and remove actions from .aia action files. Your .aia file just needs to be somewhere and app.loadAction() can read it right into the Actions panel. Same with app.unloadAction(setName, actionName) - where (thanks to qwertyfly) using (setName, "") an empty string argument for the action name will remove the entire set. And when you try to remove an action that does not exist, well, it throws an error - which is how you can check for making absolutely sure that an action set is completely removed.

This may seem like a lot of work - to write a file, read it, play it and then discard it, often to do something that you'd think scripting should do in the first place.

Sometimes the action alone is enough to satisfy an objective - such as changing the document color mode. Other times it is necessary to alter actions in order to get use out of them - such as when you try to create a routine for saving a high-resolution "Export" JPG that is different in output and options form the "Save for Web" JPG. You may want to change some of the parameters such as resolution or the actual destination of the file.

Here is how you can do this.

First, record your action as you would normally: record a new set with a new action, call them what you need and then in the Actions flyout menu, save out a .aia file where you can find it. You can open the file in a text editor and read the contents - they are lines of special Actions 'code' which contains some cryptic text.

There are lines which look like a bunch of gibberish characters, they are hex-encoded strings for some parameter item which are strings, and they contain above them a number to signify the amount of characters inside the encoded string. (this is important later because this number also needs to be set properly when you put your own value in there) Other parameter items are simple numbers, but their keys are still obscured.

The truth is, while the string parameters are hexadecimal-encoded, the keys are both hexadecimal and decimal encoded! So if you wanted to know the special 4-letter keys, you'll have to run those through two decoder routines.

Next, you will need to put this entire string into your script and use some string-replacement or string-building to put your own data in those places of the action string where they matter. For example, putting your own file path into a save action.

And, after that you need to write a procedure for writing this new altered string to the file system and loading it into your Actions panel. Mind you, to leave things "as they were" you would need to remove the .aia file and the action that you have loaded.

Let's try with the save-a-jpeg workaround!

Here is the .aia string which is recorded from an Export JPEG action.

/version 3

/name [ 8

  5475746f7269616c

]

/isOpen 1

/actionCount 1

/action-1 {

  /name [ 11

  4578706f7274204a504547

  ]

  /keyIndex 0

  /colorIndex 0

  /isOpen 1

  /eventCount 1

  /event-1 {

  /useRulersIn1stQuadrant 0

  /internalName (adobe_exportDocument)

  /localizedName [ 9

  4578706f7274204173

  ]

  /isOpen 1

  /isOn 1

  /hasDialog 1

  /showDialog 0

  /parameterCount 7

  /parameter-1 {

  /key 1885434477

  /showInPalette 0

  /type (raw)

  /value < 100

  0a00000001000000030000000200000000002c01020000000000000001000000

  69006d006100670065006d006100700000006f00630000000000000000000000

  0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

  00000100

  >

  /size 100

  }

  /parameter-2 {

  /key 1851878757

  /showInPalette 4294967295

  /type (ustring)

  /value [ 25

  2f55736572732f566173696c7948616c6c2f4465736b746f70

  ]

  }

  /parameter-3 {

  /key 1718775156

  /showInPalette 4294967295

  /type (ustring)

  /value [ 16

  4a5045472066696c6520666f726d6174

  ]

  }

  /parameter-4 {

  /key 1702392942

  /showInPalette 4294967295

  /type (ustring)

  /value [ 12

  6a70672c6a70652c6a706567

  ]

  }

  /parameter-5 {

  /key 1936548194

  /showInPalette 4294967295

  /type (boolean)

  /value 1

  }

  /parameter-6 {

  /key 1935764588

  /showInPalette 4294967295

  /type (boolean)

  /value 1

  }

  /parameter-7 {

  /key 1936875886

  /showInPalette 4294967295

  /type (ustring)

  /value [ 1

  32

  ]

  }

  }

}

We can see many parameters and their various cryptic blocks, but what you want to do is decode as many /type (ustring) elements as possible to get a sense of what the action is doing. At this website, you can do this fairly easily although tediously: Convert Hexadecimal To String Online

For example: "4a5045472066696c6520666f726d6174" turns into "JPEG file format".

In this action example, I am not worried about changing the other parameters dynamically - I'm assuming the settings used in my action are suitable for my purposes such as resolution being 300 for all time. The part I'd like to change is my file path so that my JPEG goes to the right place.

This line yields: "/Users/VasilyHall/Desktop"

So this is the line I'll need to replace.

Before anything else - here is how I'd embed the action string with ease. Using a text editor like Sublime text which lets you put many cursors down at one time, I can paste the action string in and find every nextline character. Then it's easy to highlight each line and put quotes around it as well as a comma in the end, or plusses - depending if you want to store the string as an array or a plain string in the script.

I find the plusses a little cluttering so I opt to use this format:
var actionString = [     "string",

     "string"

].join("\n");

So my dynamic portion of the string which will be used with string replacement would look like this:

"  /value [ {{number_of_characters}}",

"  {{hex_encoded_path}}",

"  ]",

When the action is ready to be dispatched, a string replacement would look like this:

var myNewPath = Folder.myDocuments.toString() + "/Destination";

var myNewPathEncoded = hexEncode(myNewPath); // find a hex encode function via google
var thisActionString = actionString.replace("{{hex_encoded_path}}", myNewPathEncoded).replace("{{number_of_characters}}", myNewPath.length);

Now it's time to write the file.

var f = File(actionFileLocation);

f.open('w');

f.write(thisActionString);

f.close();

And now it's time to load the action.

app.loadAction(actionFileLocation);

Now we can play the action.

app.doScript("Export JPEG", "Tutorial");

This should save your jpeg, and as of this writing, this is the only way to get the JPEG export which isn't the Save-for-Web variety.

But, let us not forget the cleanup.

Remove the .aia file:

f.remove();

Remove the single-use dynamic action:

app.unloadAction("Tutorial", "");

There you have it: building dynamic actions to do simple and non-simple things, which regular scripting just can't do.

Hi,

I have array with numbers and i want to create pairs from this table, like this:

var doc = app.activeDocument;

var table = ["1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9","10"]; // the table will be variable so the number of pairs will be variable too there can be 2-4 numbers and  it can be 30.

//some magic function or loop

var pairs = {

           1. pair = ["1", "2"]

           2. pair = ["2", "3"]

           3. pair = ["3", "4"]

           4. pair = ["4", "5"] etc.

} ;

Hello there,

Is there anyone who can help me in writing a illustrator script?

In PhotoShop CS3, you can select File/Automate/Batch, and run an Action on an entire folder.  I don't see that option in Illustrator CS3?  Is there a way to run an action on an entire folder?

I'm attempting to save many EPS images as PNG images, and would really like to retain "vector attributes" - is any of this possible???

Thanks for any help.

Hello, can anyone tell me how I can get my script to detect overlapping objects?

Hi,

I have a large batch of files (100+) that all have the same layer structure. The top layer is called 'Guides', the next layer is called 'Object", the next layer is called 'Shadow' and it goes on down through another 5 layers. I'd like to create a script that will select delete certain layers (eg. 'Guides') before I save out a new file as part of an action. I'm coming from a background in Photoshop, where this could all be done in actions, but appears you can't select layers in Illustrator (please correct me if I'm wrong!).

Any help in creating a script would be most appreciated!

Dave

Hey,

How would I proceed to create scripts for aligning objects? Basically what I want is to keybind the buttons for the Horizontal and Vertical align -icons.

In Photoshop you can use the ScriptListener but there doesn't seem to be anything like it for Illustrator. Illustrator also seems to have a totally different scripting structur!? I tried running a Photoshop script in Illustrator and it complains about charIDToTypeID() and stringIDToTypeID() not being valid functions.

Hi !

Here is the problem i would like to resolve with appelscript.
I want to make a new file with units (millimeters)

I know i need to make a preset before making a new document ; but i don't know how to do !

Here is a part of the code i tried to do :

tellapplication "Adobe Illustrator"

activate

setdocument unitsofdocument presettomillimeters

makenewdocumentwith properties {width:297, height:210}

endtell

Thanks for your help !

Hello All,

This question might have been asked earlier but i couldnt find a clear cut answer to this. So here goes. i am trying to localise an image across different languages and though it was best to use illustrator capabilities. For this purpose i wanted to create the image file and leave the test fields empty and make them dynamic. The idea is to then run a Javascript from illustrator that would essentially populate the dynamic text field from an external data source. However i am not able to manually create such text placeholder on the illustrator file which can later be accessed as a variable from the javascript. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Note: I know this can be done by importing it to flash and then setting the variable using the actionscript but i was hoping to tackle the problem from the illustrator side itself

Thanks a ton