Auto Visual Proof in AI?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
August 31, 2018
5 replies
3113 views

Hi There,

I was wondering if there was a particular script, skill, tip or plugin for Adobe Illustrator that could help Automate the Production of Print Cards/Proofs.

I am a Graphic Artist who creates 10-20 proofs a day based on new artwork. The way I do it currently is take the Artwork I've created and Copy and Paste it into a new A4 Sized Document. I scale down the artwork to fit here but above this is a title block or masthead which includes information such as the Customer, Size of Artwork, Colours Used, Description, Scale, Name of Artist, Version, Date etc.

Right now I enter all of this information manually in the title block with text. Is there a way where I can run something or use something that can generate some of this information for me? For example - If I am in my 100% Artwork File, can I run a script or use a known plugin to then create another ai file that takes that Artwork into an A4 and populates the Title Block with the Date, Scale %, Artist Name, Colours etc and I would have to just fill out the remaining things like Size and Customer Name manually?

I am unaware of something like this but in this day and age I can't believe that something like this doesn't exist and I just haven't found it yet! Any help would be appreciated I willing to hear any ideas or learn anything to find a solution to this!

Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.

O

O2 Creative NZ

Inspiring

Hi

I've got a script which does this called Templator, Templator - Templates for Adobe Illustrator| O2 Creative

See the docs here templator [PowerScripts] which explains the options better.

I personally use this daily in my Day Job.

J

jasonhub

Participant

Mike,

Did you ever find out how to do this auto fill for headers?

I am looking to do the same thing with size, name and colors.

Any help would be greatful!

Thanks

Jason

Silly-V

Legend

If you know all of the information before hand, such as you are able to put all of the information into a spreadsheet, then at the end of the batch you could process it as data-sets to produce your wanted results.

The native method for doing this is now available for Illustrator CC2018! https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/data-driven-graphics-templates-variables.html

Merge data to create data-driven graphics through templates and variables in Illustrator

For older versions, or if you want to use this feature a little faster & better, you can use the VariableImporter script!

Adobe-Illustrator/VariableImporter.jsx at master · Silly-V/Adobe-Illustrator · GitHub

In either case you can make a template with all your fields and then use the spreadsheet system to put all the data into columns and your artwork placed-file-image references. At the end you batch export all of the items using Illustrator Actions batch processing feature in the flyout menu.

Here's a video which is an overview of the variables feature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCBrK8tZAXQ

Q

q3player

Inspiring

It could be done in 2 steps:

First you run a script that exports all AI files that shall be proofed to PDF.

After that you run a script that places all these PDF as images into a new AI file you can send to your proofer.

The first script is rather easy. In the second script you need to determine how many PDF/images will be place and create new artboards with format A4. Then you need to get the total size out of each PDF and scale it to fit into A4. In this script you will have to include Silly-V's tip.