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L
Laubender
Adobe Expert
May 23, 2022
Answered

[ ExtendScript ] How to rotate a text frame properly? Just like the GUI does it.

  • May 23, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 2179 views

Hi together,

you might think it's the simplest thing to do using method rotate() on a selected text frame.

But somehow I cannot do this exactly like the GUI is doing this with the Transform panel.

 

Simple code:

app.activeDocument.selection[0].rotate( 20 );

 

Or if one likes to use a rotation matrix:

var rotationMatrix = app.getRotationMatrix( 20 );
app.activeDocument.selection[0].transform( rotationMatrix );

 

Here the result when doing this in the GUI, the new rotation angle is visible in the Transform panel of my German Illustrator 26.3.1 on Windows 10:

 

 

When I'm doing this with the code above, the "bounds" are not rotated, still there is value 0 in the rotation entry field of the Transform panel; the text contents is rotated like that:

 

 

What can I do to get the same result that I can get with the GUI?

 

Thanks,
Uwe Laubender
( Adobe Community Professional )

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer sttk3

From what I have found, script does not seem to update the tag "BBAccumRotation" in the text frame.

 

When I updated it on my own, I got the same result as when I did it in the GUI.

 

rotateItem(app.activeDocument.selection[0], 20) ;

/**
  * rotate item and write rotation angle in tag
  * @9397041 {PageItem} targetItem pageItem
  * @9397041 {Number} angle rotation angle in degrees
  * @Return {}
*/
function rotateItem(targetItem, angle) {
  targetItem.rotate(angle) ;
  
  // writes rotation angle (in radians) to tags['BBAccumRotation']
  var tagName = 'BBAccumRotation' ;
  var rad = angle * (Math.PI / 180) ;
  try {
    var rotationInfo = targetItem.tags[tagName] ;
    rotationInfo.value = (Number(rotationInfo.value) + rad).toString() ;
  } catch(e) {
    var rotationTag = targetItem.tags.add() ;
    rotationTag.name = tagName ;
    rotationTag.value = rad.toString() ;
  }
}

 

1 reply

S
sttk3Correct answer
Brainiac
May 23, 2022

From what I have found, script does not seem to update the tag "BBAccumRotation" in the text frame.

 

When I updated it on my own, I got the same result as when I did it in the GUI.

 

rotateItem(app.activeDocument.selection[0], 20) ;

/**
  * rotate item and write rotation angle in tag
  * @9397041 {PageItem} targetItem pageItem
  * @9397041 {Number} angle rotation angle in degrees
  * @Return {}
*/
function rotateItem(targetItem, angle) {
  targetItem.rotate(angle) ;
  
  // writes rotation angle (in radians) to tags['BBAccumRotation']
  var tagName = 'BBAccumRotation' ;
  var rad = angle * (Math.PI / 180) ;
  try {
    var rotationInfo = targetItem.tags[tagName] ;
    rotationInfo.value = (Number(rotationInfo.value) + rad).toString() ;
  } catch(e) {
    var rotationTag = targetItem.tags.add() ;
    rotationTag.name = tagName ;
    rotationTag.value = rad.toString() ;
  }
}

 

    L
    LaubenderAuthor
    Adobe Expert
    May 23, 2022

    Hi sttk3,

    thank you very much for this!

    Just tested and all looks very good.

     

    Never thought, that it would be necessary to update or add a tag like "BBAccumRotation" to a page item.

    Usually I am writing scripts for InDesign where something like that is not necessary; when I think about the concept alone, well, I'm a little speechless…

     

    Your solution is working. And I will look deeper into the possible applications of tags for page items.

    Right now it seems to be a weird concept for me.

     

    Thanks,
    Uwe Laubender
    ( Adobe Community Professional )

    m1b
    m1b
    Brainiac
    May 23, 2022
    @Laubender wrote:

    Usually I am writing scripts for InDesign where something like that is not necessary; when I think about the concept alone, well, I'm a little speechless…

     

    Hi Uwe, so we have come to the dinner party and met with Indesign's cousin, Illustrator, who forgot to wear pants to the table. I am a little speechless too... but I love them both all the same. Haha.

     

    On a serious note, this "BBAccumRotation" issue is rare to come up in practice. Off the top of my head I don't think tags are used for anything else. Perhaps worse is the dirty namespace issues. For example, "selection" is the same as "app.activeDocument.selection" for example, so in Illustrator we must avoid giving variables names like path or selection due to this mess.

     

    About the old Illustrator Scripting Forum: just raise a topic here with Scripting tag. It can go as deep as we like it to. There are people here who really know their stuff—like @sttk3 as you can see! 🙂

    - Mark

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