Community Beginner
,
TOPICS
Experiment
,
Feature request
,
How-to
,
Print and publish
,
Scripting
,
Type
Explore related tutorials & articles
10
Replies
10
10
Replies
Community Expert
,
Hi Steve, I was intriged by this challenge and decided to write a script to do it. I did not know you are a keen scripter, and you probably have a better approach than mine, but I will post my script here for what it's worth. Only read it if you don't want the challenge of solving for yourself! 🙂 Oh and of course it hasn't been tested much so will definitely break for some cases.
- Mark
If you decide to test it out, here's how to set it up:
1. Put the two script files together into a folder
- "Manually Hyphenate Selected Text.js" (first script below)
- "Hyphenator.js" (second listing below)
2. Write out your word list and save as "wordlist.txt" in the same folder (see example below).
3. Select some text in Illustrator and run "Manually Hyphenate Selected Text.js" script.
Here are screen grabs of my example. Note that running the script again, will first remove the previous hyphenation.
Script file 1:
/**
* Performs "manual" hyphenation on selected text(s),
* using custom word list.
* Word list contains one word per line, and includes
* a hyphen at every viable position, for example:
* -----------------------------------
* methyl-sulfonyl-methane
* phyto-sphingo-sine
* tri-hydroxy-stearin
* -----------------------------------
* @File Manually Hyphenate Selected Text.js
* @author m1b
* @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/bespoke-hyphenation-library/m-p/14342552
*/
//@include 'Hyphenator.js'
(function () {
var words = loadLinesFromFile('wordlist.txt');
var hyphenator = new Hyphenator({ words: words }),
doc = app.activeDocument,
sel = doc.selection,
textsToHyphenate = getTexts(sel);
// hyphenate all the texts
for (var i = 0; i < textsToHyphenate.length; i++)
hyphenator.hyphenateText(textsToHyphenate[i]);
})();
/**
* Get array of text ranges from the supplied item(s).
* @author m1b
* @version 2024-01-09
* @Param {TextRange|TextFrame|Array|GroupItem} item - the item or items to get text from.
* @Returns {?Array<TextRange}
*/
function getTexts(item) {
var texts = [];
if (item == undefined)
return;
if (item.hasOwnProperty('baselineShift'))
// already text
texts.push(item);
else if (
item.constructor.name == 'Story'
|| item.constructor.name == 'TextFrame'
)
// almost text
texts.push(item.textRange);
else if (
(
// to bypass bug in TextFrames object:
item.typename
&& item.typename == 'TextFrames'
)
|| item.constructor.name == 'Stories'
|| item.constructor.name == 'Array'
)
// handle array of text frames
for (var j = item.length - 1; j >= 0; j--)
texts = texts.concat(getTexts(item[j]) || []);
else if (item.constructor.name == 'GroupItem')
// all text in group
for (var j = item.pageItems.length - 1; j >= 0; j--)
texts = texts.concat(getTexts(item.pageItems[j]) || []);
else if (item.constructor.name == 'Document')
// all text in document
texts = texts.concat(getTexts(item.stories));
return texts;
};
/**
* Returns array of strings by reading
* each line of text file.
* @Param {String} nameOrPath - the path or file name of the target file.
* @Returns {Array<String>}
*/
function loadLinesFromFile(nameOrPath) {
if (!/\/\\/.test(nameOrPath))
nameOrPath = File($.fileName).parent + '/' + nameOrPath;
var f = File(nameOrPath);
if (!File(nameOrPath).exists)
return alert('Error: could not find word list at "' + nameOrPath + '"');
f.open('r');
return f.read().split(/[\n\r]/g);
};
Script File 2:
/**
* @File Hypenator.js
* @author m1b
* Helper objects:
* - Hyphenator
* - HyphenatedWord
*
* Public methods of Hyphenator:
* - removePreviousHyphenation
* - hyphenateText
*/
/**
* A hyphenation helper object.
* @author m1b
* @version 2024-01-13
* @constructor
* @Param {Object} options
* @Param {Array<String>} options.words - the hypenated words to use.
*/
function Hyphenator(options) {
options = options || {};
var self = this;
// the hyphen character
self.hyphen = options.hyphen || '-';
// a character to break a line
self.breaker = options.breaker || ' '; // ordinary space for now
// the word list
self.words = options.words || [];
for (var i = 0; i < self.words.length; i++)
if ('String' === self.words[i].constructor.name)
self.words[i] = new HyphenatedWord(self.words[i], self);
};
/**
* Removes manual hyphenations
* by searching for hypen/breaks.
* @author m1b
* @version 2024-01-13
* @Param {TextRange} text - an Illutrator TextRange.
*/
Hyphenator.prototype.removePreviousHyphenation = function removePreviousHyphenation(text) {
var self = this,
contents = text.contents,
matcher = new RegExp(self.hyphen + self.breaker, 'g'),
match,
found = [],
removeMe;
matcher.lastIndex = 0;
while (match = matcher.exec(contents))
found.push(match.index);
// process each found, going backwards
while (removeMe = found.pop()) {
text.characters[removeMe].remove();
text.characters[removeMe].remove();
}
};
/**
* Finds the first word in the given text,
* and returns an object containing the word
* and its start index.
* If a `from` number is supplied, the search
* will start from there.
* @author m1b
* @version 2024-01-13
* @Param {TextRange} text - an Illustrator Text Range.
* @Param {Number} [from] - start searching from this character index (default: 0).
* @Returns {Object} - {word: HypenatedWord, start: Number}
*/
Hyphenator.prototype.getFirstWord = function getFirstWord(text, from) {
var self = this,
contents = text.contents.slice(from || 0),
firstWord = {
start: Infinity,
word: undefined
};
for (var i = 0, start; i < self.words.length; i++) {
start = contents.search(new RegExp('\\b' + self.words[i].word + '\\b', 'i'));
if (
-1 !== start
&& start < firstWord.start
) {
firstWord.start = start;
firstWord.word = self.words[i];
}
}
if (undefined !== firstWord.word) {
// update offset
firstWord.start += from;
return firstWord;
}
};
/**
* Perform the hypenation on the given text.
* @author m1b
* @version 2024-01-13
* @Param {TextRange} text - an Illustrator TextRange.
*/
Hyphenator.prototype.hyphenateText = function hyphenateText(text) {
var self = this;
if (
!text.hasOwnProperty('contents')
|| 0 === text.contents.length
)
return;
self.removePreviousHyphenation(text);
var currentWord,
advance = 0,
currentLineID,
breaks = [];
wordsLoop:
while (currentWord = self.getFirstWord(text, advance)) {
advance = currentWord.start;
partsLoop:
for (var i = 1, removeMe; i < currentWord.word.parts.length; i++) {
// add the length of the preceding part
advance += currentWord.word.parts[i - 1].contents.length;
// the lineID is used to test whether linebreaks shifted
currentLineID = getLineID(text.characters[advance]);
// add the hypen/breaker to the contents of the character before
text.characters[advance - 1].contents += self.hyphen + self.breaker;
breaks.push(advance)
advance += 2;
// track the hyphen in
text.characters[advance - 1].tracking = -250;
// sanity check
if (0 === text.characters[text.characters.length - 1].lines.length)
return alert('Warning: hyphenating failed due to overset text.');
// check if the line shifted
if (getLineID(text.characters[advance - 2]) < currentLineID) {
// the break has caused the line
// to jump up to the _previous_ line
currentLineID = getLineID(text.characters[advance - 2]);
// see if previous breaks need removing
breaksLoop:
for (var j = 0, offset = 0; j < breaks.length; j++) {
// offset takes removals into account
breaks[j] += offset;
if (j >= breaks.length - 1)
// we never remove the most recent break
break breaksLoop;
if (getLineID(text.characters[breaks[j]]) === currentLineID) {
// remove this obsolete break
text.characters[breaks[j]].remove();
text.characters[breaks[j]].remove();
breaks.splice(j--, 1);
// make adjustments
offset -= 2;
advance -= 2;
}
}
continue partsLoop;
}
else if (getLineID(text.characters[advance + 2]) > currentLineID) {
// the break is good, because the
// breaker is at the end of the line
continue partsLoop;
}
else {
// break not needed, because there is room for more text after it
removeMe = breaks.pop();
text.characters[removeMe].remove();
text.characters[removeMe].remove();
advance -= 2;
}
}
}
function getLineID(text) {
return text.lines[0].start;
};
};
/**
* A word object with hyphenation information.
* @author m1b
* @version 2024-01-13
* @constructor
* @Param {String} hyphenatedWord - the word, maximally hyphenated.
* @Param {Hyphenator} hyphenator - the hypenator to use.
*/
function HyphenatedWord(hyphenatedWord, hyphenator) {
var self = this;
self.hyphenator = hyphenator;
self.hyphenatedWord = hyphenatedWord;
self.matchHyphens = new RegExp(hyphenator.hyphen, 'g');
self.word = hyphenatedWord.replace(self.matchHyphens, '');
self.length = self.word.length;
self.parts = [];
var parts = hyphenatedWord.split(hyphenator.hyphen);
for (var i = 0, index = 0; i < parts.length; i++, index += parts[i - 1].length)
self.parts.push({ contents: parts[i], start: index });
};
Resources
Learning Resources for Illustrator
Crash on launch and known issues
Fonts and Typography in Illustrator
AdChoices