Skip to main content
A
Anonymous
February 20, 2013
Question

Illustrator CS6 set defaults to inches

  • February 20, 2013
  • 2 replies
  • 95797 views

In Illustrator you can set inches for the units by doing the following:

Go under "Illustrator Menu"

Select "Units " under "Preferences" menu item

Set "Stroke" to inches

Set "Type" to inches

How can I make a startup script so those values are set to inches for "Stroke" and "Type"??   So when a student makes a new document its already set to inches.

For Indesign I did the following with Applescript:

tell application "Adobe InDesign CS6"

          tell view preferences

                    set ruler origin to page origin

                    set horizontal measurement units to inches

                    set vertical measurement units to inches

          end tell

end tell

Can't get it scripted for Illustrator to default to inches.  Anyone have any idea on how I would go about scripting this?

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

     tell startup presets

          set ruler units to inches

     end tell

end tell

Or something along those lines........

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Jongware
    Community Expert
    JongwareCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2013
    dball5557 wrote:

    How can I make a startup script so those values are set to inches for "Stroke" and "Type"??   So when a student makes a new document its already set to inches.

    Unrelated to the actual problem, but:

    Do you think it's useful to teach students to measure stroke widths in inches? A typical stroke width for a standard graphic is 0.5 pt; in inches you need to enter "0.007 in".

    The same, actually, goes for Type. Historically, Type sizes are in points -- 10 pts equals your average book font size, 12 pts is "a bit large", 18 pts is a good headline, and 40 pts is HUGE. In inches, that's (hold on, bringing on the calculator ..) 0.139, 0.167, 0.25, and 0.556.

    Of course this is assuming your students are not going to design 40ft wide billboards ... at its actual size.

    A
    Anonymous
    February 20, 2013

    Thats a question for faculty, they have always wanted inches to be the default.   I used to be able to set the prefs and simply put them into the User Template, but Indesign isn't liking that with CS 6.  Making things difficult here!   I put in a bug report with Adobe, but not sure anything will be done.  I don't think putting the preset prefs in the User Template was ever supported in the past.  Been getting lucky!

    Larry G. Schneider
    Community Expert
    Larry G. SchneiderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2013

    Look at DocumentPresets properties.

    A
    Anonymous
    February 20, 2013

    I actually have been, but unable to figure it out.  Document Units, Ruler Units, etc.  Still no luck....

    tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

              tell document preset

                        set document units to inches

              end tell

    end tell

    CarlosCanto
    Community Expert
    CarlosCantoCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2013

    Thats how I have done it in the past, but InDesign seems to be buggy with doing this even if its prefs for Illustrator, which makes no sense to me.  I just took out the InDesign Prefs from the user template and still had problems.  Took out all Adobe prefs and then it was  more stable.  Tried to sneek just the Illustrator prefs back and InDesign started acting up again.  Strange.


    you can change them manually once, next time you restart illustrator it'll remember those settings

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices