Script to center texts inside paths

[Denis_251]

Hello,

I need to center texts inside closed paths (mostly rectangle shapes). The texts are on one layer and the paths on another. It feels like there must be a faster way than to do this by hand... is there a script that could speed up the process?

Thanks!

[CarlosCanto]

try this script, it doesn't have any error checking so make sure your text layer is the top most layer, shape layer is right below it and you have the same number of text items and shape items

// center text on one layer to shape on the layer below
// https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/script-to-center-texts-inside-paths/td-p/13503494

var idoc = app.activeDocument;
var textLayer = idoc.layers[0]
var shapeLayer = idoc.layers[1]

for (var a=0; a<textLayer.pageItems.length; a++) {
    textItem = textLayer.pageItems[a];
    shapeItem = shapeLayer.pageItems[a];
    
    textItem.position = [
        shapeItem.position[0] + shapeItem.width/2 - textItem.width/2,
        shapeItem.position[1] - shapeItem.height/2 + textItem.height/2
    ]
}

[Denis_251]

Thanks Carlos. Unfortunately some files will have paths without texts inside. But what I failed to precise is that the texts are all different: I'd need each text to be centered in the rectangle that is around it..

[femkeblanco]

Are the rectangles paths (not groups, for example)?  Is the type text (not paths)?  Is the text's bounding box completely within the path?  If so, @CarlosCanto's script can be easily modified to centre the text relative to the path it's in. 

[Kurt Gold]

It may be helpful if you could share at least one sample Illustrator file that shows the initial situation as well as the desired result.

[Denis_251]

The rectangles are "paths" and the type "text". The texts bounding box might sometimes be outside of the paths but their centers will be inside. Here's an exemple; the green rectangles show the texts centered; the others are in their original position (from an autocad file). Thanks.

[femkeblanco]

var doc = app.activeDocument;
for (var i = 0; i < doc.pathItems.length; i++) {
    var shapeItem = doc.pathItems[i];
    var bounds = shapeItem.geometricBounds;
    for (var j = 0; j < doc.textFrames.length; j++) {
        var textItem = doc.textFrames[j];
        var centre = [
            textItem.position[0] + textItem.width / 2, 
            textItem.position[1] - textItem.height / 2
        ];
        if ((centre[0] > bounds[0] && centre[0] < bounds[2]) && 
            (centre[1] < bounds[1] && centre[1] > bounds[3])) {
            textItem.position = [
                shapeItem.position[0] + shapeItem.width / 2 - textItem.width / 2,
                shapeItem.position[1] - shapeItem.height / 2 + textItem.height / 2
            ];
        }
    }
}

[Denis_251]

Thanks but it seems to no work on the rectangles that have a rotation?

[CarlosCanto]

Hi Denis, the script worked pretty good as is with the provided sample file. I had to made an adjustment though.

delete or move the "<Rectangle>" to the bottom of the layer before running the script

Before

After

[Denis_251]

Thanks Carlos. You're right it works great on the sample file, the only problem is when there is no text inside a rectangle then all the texts will be shuffled (sometimes centered in a different rectangle than the one they were inside originally). It's already a big help, just a bit scary to run on a file with hundreds of rectangle/texts where I might miss an empy one!

[femkeblanco · Accepted solution]

"it seems to no work on the rectangles that have a rotation?"

That's because the script relys upon the bounding boxes, and the bounding boxes of the rotated rectangles overlap.  Try this.  It worked on a simple test doc, but it has not been rigorously tested.  (I cannot open your file becuase of my Illustrator.)

var doc = app.activeDocument;
for (var i = 0; i < doc.pathItems.length; i++) {
    var shapeItem = doc.pathItems[i];
    for (var j = 0; j < doc.textFrames.length; j++) {
        var textItem = doc.textFrames[j];
        var centre = [
            textItem.position[0] + textItem.width / 2, 
            textItem.position[1] - textItem.height / 2
        ];
        if (pointIsInPoly(shapeItem.pathPoints, centre)) {
            textItem.position = [
                shapeItem.position[0] + shapeItem.width / 2 - textItem.width / 2,
                shapeItem.position[1] - shapeItem.height / 2 + textItem.height / 2
            ];
        }
    }
}
// Jonas Raoni Soares Silva
// http://jsfromhell.com/math/is-point-in-poly
function pointIsInPoly(poly, pt){
    for(var c = false, i = -1, l = poly.length, j = l - 1; ++i < l; j = i)
        ((poly[i].anchor[1] <= pt[1] && pt[1] < poly[j].anchor[1]) || (poly[j].anchor[1] <= pt[1] && pt[1] < poly[i].anchor[1]))
        && (pt[0] < (poly[j].anchor[0] - poly[i].anchor[0]) * (pt[1] - poly[i].anchor[1]) / (poly[j].anchor[1] - poly[i].anchor[1]) + poly[i].anchor[0])
        && (c = !c);
    return c;
}

[Fightergator]

Thanks for this.  I'm beginning to explore scripting in Illustrator (have been doing it for a while in FrameMaker) and this looked like an easy and useful script.  It worked exactly as advertised and will save me work aligning text and shapes in some of the graphics I do.  Many thanks. 

[Denis_251]

Thanks a lot! This works great even when there are empty rectangles.