random stroke weight/thickness script

[Gamm System]

Hello everyone, do you know if there is a free script to vary the thickness of the strokes randomly or in a parametric way? so far not found ... Thank you very much

[femkeblanco]

Do you mean vary the thickness of the strokes from item to item? 

[Gamm System]

Hi, I mean that I have a series of strokes and I would like each one to have different thicknesses ... either randomly or by setting some range (min -max), thanks

[femkeblanco]

Select items.  You can change min and max in the first line.

var min = 1, max = 5;
var array = [];
function push(items) {
    for (var i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
        if (items[i].typename == "PathItem") {
            array.push(items[i]);
        } else if (items[i].typename == "GroupItem") {
            push(items[i].pageItems);
        } else if (items[i].typename == "CompoundPathItem") {
            push(items[i].pathItems);
        }
    }
}
push(app.selection);
for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
    if (array[i].stroked)
    var x = Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min + 1)) + min;
    array[i].strokeWidth = x;
}

[Gamm System]

a thousand thanks!!!
I'll try it tomorrow

[femkeblanco · Accepted solution]

Alternatively, you could try random normal distribution.  Again, select items. You can change mean and standard deviation in the first line.

var mean = 5, SD = 1;
var y2 = 0;
var array = [];
function push(items) {
    for (var i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
        if (items[i].typename == "PathItem") {
            array.push(items[i]);
        } else if (items[i].typename == "GroupItem") {
            push(items[i].pageItems);
        } else if (items[i].typename == "CompoundPathItem") {
            push(items[i].pathItems);
        }
    }
}
push(app.selection);
for (var i = 0; i < array.length; i++) {
    if (array[i].stroked)
    var x = randomGaussian(mean, SD);
    array[i].strokeWidth = x;
}
// randomGaussian()
function randomGaussian (tempmean, tempsd) {
    var mean = tempmean || 0;
    var sd = tempsd || 1;
    var y1, x1, x2, w;
    if (this.gaussianprevious) {
        y1 = y2;
        this.gaussianprevious = false;
    } else {
        do {
            x1 = this.Math.random() * 2 - 1;
            x2 = this.Math.random() * 2 - 1;
            w = x1 * x1 + x2 * x2;
        } while (w >= 1);
        w = Math.sqrt(-2 * Math.log(w) / w);
        y1 = x1 * w;
        y2 = x2 * w;
        this.gaussianprevious = true;
    }
    return y1 * sd + mean;
}

[Gamm System]

thank you very much femkeblanco! both work perfectly ... thank you very much again!

[Kurt Gold]

You may try Object menu > Transform > Transform Each with appropriate random settings.

[Gamm System]

thank you, but so I would transform and change the size and length of the strokes while I just want to change the weight / thickness of the lines

[Kurt Gold · Accepted solution]

That should work as well if you enable the "Scale Strokes and Effects" option and disable the "Transform Objects" option at the bottom of the Transform Each dialog.

[Gamm System]

You're right, Kurt also works like this ... I hadn't thought about it.
In any case, the Femkeblanco scripts are very useful.

Thank you all

[Sergey Osokin · Accepted solution]

Maybe you will also find this script useful. https://github.com/creold/illustrator-scripts/blob/master/md/Style.md#randomstrokewidth

[Gamm System]

Thanks Sergey, your scripts are always very useful and very well explained!