Randomly assign font to characters

[kelseycapp]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out a way to randomly assign one of a set of fonts to each character in the document.
I've searched the internet and found the below script that is supposed to work for Microsoft Word (I'm still a novice when it comes to scripting, and the script is sort of old, so I haven't succeeded in making it work).

I wanted to see if anyone knew of a way to use this concept and adapt a script for InDesign that would randomly assign a font to each character in the document from a list of fonts.

Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")

objWord.Visible = True

Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open("C:\Scripts\Test.doc")

Set objRandom = CreateObject("System.Random")

intLow = 1

intHigh = 5

Set objRange = objDoc.Range()

Set colCharacters = objRange.Characters

For Each strCharacter in colCharacters

    intRandom = objRandom.Next_2(intLow,intHigh)

    Select Case intRandom

        Case 1 strCharacter.Font.Name = "Arial"

        Case 2 strCharacter.Font.Name = "Times New Roman"

        Case 3 strCharacter.Font.Name = "Courier New"

        Case 4 strCharacter.Font.Name = "Forte"

    End Select

Next

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

[Peter Kahrel]

You should refine your googling : "indesign apply random font" gives you numerous links, the more interisting of which is Random font script?

But that doesn't apply random fonts to characters. This does (select a text frame or some text):

fontNames = ['Arial', 'Times New Roman', 'Courier New', 'Forte'];
ch = app.selection[0].parentStory.characters.everyItem().getElements();
for (i = ch.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
    ch.appliedFont = fontNames[Math.floor(Math.random()*4)];
}

Expect very, very long running times on large documents.

Peter

[Rouxer]

been using this for a while, very good sir

[annaf92690288]

Hi, I am not sure if I am doing this wrong.

I have a 10 page story and am trying to run this script on it. Nothing seems to be changing though.

Is there more to this code that I should be adding?

[Laubender]

Hi Anna,

one explanation why this script is not working for you:

You have no fonts installed that match the names in the array with the variable fontNames.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[annaf92690288]

I do have all those fonts 😞

I'm saving this as a .jsx file in my Scripts Panel, this is correct right?

[brianp311]

Are you selected somewhere into a text frame with your text tool? 

Do you get any warning or error messages? 

[annaf92690288]

Yes, I have tried putting the cursor in the text frame, selecting text, and just selecting the text frame.

Unfortunately I do not get any error messages. I will attach a screen recording of what I am doing... maybe there is something I am doing very wrong.