Script to detect Overprint within a document

[TySprice]

I work at a large commercial printing company. Things being set to overprint when they shouldn’t be is a huge recurring problem leading to many re-prints and a lot of loss financially.

Ideally, I would like to implement a script that can detect if an Illustrator document contains items that are set to overprint. I am curious if there is any way of achieving this without needing to loop through every single thing in the document. I don’t need to modify the overprint setting on anything. I simply would like to alert the user if the document has anything set to overprint. If anyone knows of any method of detecting this on the document level, I would be forever grateful. Or if there are any other methods of achieving this, I am all ears.

Thanks!

[CarlosCanto]

there's a way, it could be scripted but for now you can check manually

- go to File->File Info...

- click on the Raw Data Section on left of the XMP metadata window

- type "hasVisibleOverprint" in the search field to go to the field

- you should see True or False

[TySprice]

Hey, this is immensely helpful. Thank You!

When I run the following script it spits out "Undefined". I would imagine it is because it can't find the property. I have the document saved as a PDF. I believe I am using the correct namespace URI. However, when I include the prefix with the property name (xmpTPg:HasVisibleOverprint) it indicates that there is a Schema namespace URI and prefix mismatch. Is there a different namespace URI that I should be using? Or am I just off base in thinking that we have access to this metadata using the AdobeXMPScript library?

if ( ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined ) {

    ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject( "lib:AdobeXMPScript");

}

var currentDoc = app.activeDocument;
var fileName = currentDoc.fullName;
var fixName = fileName.fsName;

var docXMPFile = new XMPFile(fixName, 0, XMPConst.OPEN_FOR_READ);
var docXMPData = docXMPFile.getPacketInfo();

var docXMPMeta = new XMPMeta(docXMPData.packet);

var overPrint = docXMPMeta.getProperty(XMPConst.NS_PDF, "HasVisibleOverprint");

alert(String(overPrint));

 Really appreciate the help!

Thanks!

[CarlosCanto · Accepted solution]

try this with an active document 

// load the library
if (ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined) {
    ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new
    ExternalObject("lib:AdobeXMPScript");
}

var ns = "http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/t/pg/";
var propertyname = "HasVisibleOverprint";

//Create an XMPMeta object from the active documents XMPString:
var myXmp = new XMPMeta(app.activeDocument.XMPString);

// retrieve property if it exists
var doesprop = myXmp.doesPropertyExist(ns, propertyname); // true

if (doesprop) {
    var prop = myXmp.getProperty(ns, fieldName); 
    alert("namespace: " + prop.namespace  + "\n\nproperty name: " + propertyname + "\n\nvalue: " + prop);
}
else {
    alert (propertyname + " was not found");
}

[TySprice]

This works like a charm. Below is the Frankenstein of a script that I came up with. The script below essentially just prompts the user to select files to check. Will definitely be messing around with this to see what other useful data I can extract from the Metadata and make more human redable for the people on my team.

//Load the external library

if ( ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined ) {

  ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject("lib:AdobeXMPScript");

}

//Namespace and property name

var nameSpace = "http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/t/pg/";
var propName = "HasVisibleOverprint";

//Variable to store files and the generated alert string

var allFiles;
var alertString = "Selected File(s) Overprint Settings\n";

//Prompt the user to open files for checking

allFiles = File.openDialog("Please select files to check.", undefined, true);

//Loop through the files selected by the user and check for overprint in the metadata

for(var i = 0; i < allFiles.length; i++) {

  //Get metadata for the current file

  var currentXMP = new XMPFile(allFiles[i].fsName, 0, XMPConst.OPEN_FOR_READ);
  var packetXMP = currentXMP.getPacketInfo();
  var currentMeta = new XMPMeta(packetXMP.packet);

  //Check if the property exists in the data

  var propTest = currentMeta.doesPropertyExist(nameSpace, propName);

  //Name of the current file

  var activeName = allFiles[i].name;

  //Append to the alert string based on the existense of the property

  if(propTest) {

    //Get the property value

    var activeProperty = currentMeta.getProperty(nameSpace, propName);

    //Add to the alert string

    alertString = alertString + activeName + "\nVisible Overprint: " + activeProperty + "\n\n";

  }else {

    //Add to the alert string

    alertString = alertString + activeName + "\nVisible Overprint: UNAVAILABLE";

  }
}

//Display to the user which of the selected files have visible overprint

alert(alertString);

Thanks so much for your help!