Selecting a text layer in a particular artboard by Artboard size using Java script?

[Vibi Dev]

I want to select all the text layers by font type in a particular Artboard. Artboard needs to be identified by its dimension. 
I have a script to select all the artboards in an active document. Could anyone help me modify this? 

var activeDoc = app.activeDocument;

var artboards = activeDoc.layers;

var visibleArtboards = [];
for (var i = 0; i < artboards.length; i++) {
    if (artboards[i].visible) {

        // select ID as we go along
        var layerID = artboards[i].id;
        visibleArtboards.push(layerID);

    }
}

// Loop over the layers again and select all the art boards
for (var i = 0; i < visibleArtboards.length; i++) {
    // add to current selection of layers
    select_by_ID(visibleArtboards[i], true);
}

function select_by_ID(id, add) {
    if (add == undefined) add = false;
    var desc1 = new ActionDescriptor();
    var ref1 = new ActionReference();
    ref1.putIdentifier(charIDToTypeID('Lyr '), id);
    desc1.putReference(charIDToTypeID('null'), ref1);
    if (add) desc1.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("selectionModifier"), stringIDToTypeID("selectionModifierType"), stringIDToTypeID("addToSelection"));
    executeAction(charIDToTypeID('slct'), desc1, DialogModes.NO);
} // end of selectByID()

[Chuck Uebele]

Your script seems to select more that just artboards, so it needs some refinement. Here's a script by r-bin (slightly modified) that will displace the artboard size. So this script needs to be incorporated into your script to find the artboard the size you want it. Then you need to loop through the correct artboard, find the text layers, and the see if it's the text font that you want.

var layer = activeDocument.layers[0];
var lb = layer_bounds(layer);
var ab = artboard_rectangle(layer);
alert("DOM width = " + (activeDocument.activeLayer.bounds[2]-activeDocument.activeLayer.bounds[0]) + "\n\n"+
      "AM layer width in px = " + (lb[2]-lb[0]) + "\n\n"+
      "AM artboardr width in px = " + (ab[2]-ab[0]) + '\n\n' +
      'AM artboard height in px = ' +(ab[3]-ab[1]));

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function layer_bounds(layer, no_effects)
    {
    try {        
        var prop = stringIDToTypeID("bounds");
        if (no_effects == true)  prop = stringIDToTypeID("boundsNoEffects");
        if (no_effects == false) prop = stringIDToTypeID("boundsNoMask");
        var r = new ActionReference();    
        r.putProperty(stringIDToTypeID("property"), prop);
        if (layer) r.putIdentifier(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), layer.id);
        else       r.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), stringIDToTypeID("ordinal"), stringIDToTypeID("targetEnum"));   

        var d = executeActionGet(r).getObjectValue(prop);

        var bounds = new Array();

        bounds[0] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("left"));
        bounds[1] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("top")); 
        bounds[2] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("right"));
        bounds[3] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("bottom"));

        return bounds;
        }
    catch(e) { alert(e); }
    }

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

function artboard_rectangle(layer)
    {
    try {        
        var r    = new ActionReference();    
        r.putProperty(stringIDToTypeID("property"), stringIDToTypeID("artboard"));
        if (layer) r.putIdentifier(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), layer.id);
        else       r.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), stringIDToTypeID("ordinal"), stringIDToTypeID("targetEnum"));
        var d = executeActionGet(r).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboard")).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboardRect"));
        var bounds = new Array();
        bounds[0] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("left"));
        bounds[1] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("top")); 
        bounds[2] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("right"));
        bounds[3] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("bottom"));                                

        return bounds;
        }
    catch(e) { alert(e); }
    }

[Vibi Dev]

Thank you so much, Chuck. I will check and get back. I have also added a new script to this post. Could you please check that as well? 

[Chuck Uebele]

I'm working on it. Might take a bit, as I've run into a snag. Hopefully by this evening. 

[jugenjury]

Forgive me. I'm not sure what you mean by "select all the text layers by font type" and "Artboard needs to be identified by its dimension".

Do you want to create an array of all the text layers and sort them by font type? Do you want to rename the ArtBoards with the dimensions? Can you give an example of the output you're looking for?

[Vibi Dev]

Hey Jugenjury, Thanks for pitching in. I will make sure to put it clear this time. 

I have 10 artboards in a single PSD file. Each artboard is different in size. I would like to access X number of artboards in terms of dimensions and change the text layers content(which are in Arial-bold) within those selected artboards. One single text content to replace all the text layers(which are in Arial-bold) across the selected artboards. Thanks in advance. I hope this is not confusing. 

[Vibi Dev]

var fileRef = app.activeDocument;

// Gets user input

var defaultValue = '';

var desktopHead = prompt("Paste your new headline", defaultValue);

layers = fileRef.layers; //getting top layers because artboards are top layers

function changeTextLayerContent(doc, newTextString) {

for (var i = 0, max = doc.layers.length; i < max; i++) {

var layerRef = doc.layers[i];

if (layerRef.typename === "ArtLayer") {

if (layerRef.kind === LayerKind.TEXT) {

if (layerRef.textItem.font === "Arial-Bold") {

layerRef.textItem.contents = desktopHead;

}

}

} else {

changeTextLayerContent(layerRef, desktopHead);

}

}

}

changeTextLayerContent(fileRef, desktopHead);


This script will access all the artboard's text layers. But I would like to access only selective artboard's text layers using the artboard's dimensions. 

[Chuck Uebele]

Okay, try this. You need to know the artboard size to put into the UI. You also need to have the correct name for the font. I had to change your Arial-Bold to Arial-BoldMT.

#target photoshop

var doc = app.activeDocument;

var aWidth = 0
var aHeight = 0
var desktopHead = '';
var ab

var dlg = new Window('dialog','Replace Headline');
    dlg.textGP = dlg.add('group');
        dlg.textGP.orientation = 'row';
        dlg.textGP.alignment = ['right','top'];
        dlg.textGP.alignChildren = ['right','top'];
        dlg.textGP.sTxt = dlg.textGP.add('statictext',undefined,'Paste your new headline')
        dlg.textGP.eTxt = dlg.textGP.add('edittext',undefined,'')
            dlg.textGP.eTxt.size = [500,21];    
    dlg.widthGP = dlg.add('group');
        dlg.widthGP.orientation = 'row';
        dlg.widthGP.alignment = ['right','top'];
        dlg.widthGP.alignChildren = ['right','top'];
        dlg.widthGP.sTxt = dlg.widthGP.add('statictext',undefined,'Enter width of artboard')
        dlg.widthGP.eTxt = dlg.widthGP.add('edittext',undefined,'')
            dlg.widthGP.eTxt.size = [500,21];              
    dlg.heightGP = dlg.add('group');
        dlg.heightGP.orientation = 'row';
        dlg.heightGP.alignment = ['right','top'];
        dlg.heightGP.alignChildren = ['right','top'];
        dlg.heightGP.sTxt = dlg.heightGP.add('statictext',undefined,'Enter width of artboard')
        dlg.heightGP.eTxt = dlg.heightGP.add('edittext',undefined,'')
            dlg.heightGP.eTxt.size = [500,21];      
    dlg.btnGp = dlg.add('group');
        dlg.btnGp.orientation = 'row';
        dlg.btnGp.ok = dlg.btnGp.add('button',undefined,'Okay');
        dlg.btnGp.cancel = dlg.btnGp.add('button',undefined,'Cancel');
        
   dlg.btnGp.ok.onClick = function(){

       dlg.close();
       aWidth = Number(dlg.widthGP.eTxt.text);
       aHeight = Number(dlg.heightGP.eTxt.text);
       desktopHead = dlg.textGP.eTxt.text;
       }
            
     dlg.show();

var docLayers = doc.layers.length; //getting top layers because artboards are top layers

for(var i=0;i<docLayers;i++){
    doc.activeLayer = doc.layers[i];
    var aLayer = doc.activeLayer
    ab = artboard_rectangle(doc.activeLayer);
    if((ab[2]-ab[0]) == aWidth && (ab[3]-ab[1]) == aHeight)
        var layLen = aLayer.layers.length
        for(var j=0;j<layLen;j++){
            doc.activeLayer = aLayer.layers[j];
            var layerRef = doc.activeLayer

            if (layerRef.kind === LayerKind.TEXT) {
                if(layerRef.textItem.font === "Arial-BoldMT"){//make sure you have correct font name
                    layerRef.textItem.contents = desktopHead;
                    }
                }
            }
    }

function artboard_rectangle(layer)
    {
    try {        
        var r    = new ActionReference();    
        r.putProperty(stringIDToTypeID("property"), stringIDToTypeID("artboard"));
        if (layer) r.putIdentifier(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), layer.id);
        else       r.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), stringIDToTypeID("ordinal"), stringIDToTypeID("targetEnum"));
        var d = executeActionGet(r).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboard")).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboardRect"));
        var bounds = new Array();
        bounds[0] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("left"));
        bounds[1] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("top")); 
        bounds[2] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("right"));
        bounds[3] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("bottom"));                                

        return bounds;
        }
    catch(e) { alert(e); }
    }

[Vibi Dev]

This is awesome, Chuck. It works as expected. But there's a challenge in this script. Whenever the text layer is inside a group, the script doesn't work or gives an error. Is there a fix to it? Please let me know. I really appreciate your support.  

[Chuck Uebele]

Yea, I can look at that. So the text layer you want to change is within a group, inside the artboard?

[Vibi Dev]

Yes, that's right, Chuck. Few text layers might be within the group inside the artboard. Also, the dimensions of the artboards can be called inside the script itself (1000x1000, 400x500, etc). It need not be on the dialog box. If that's not too much of an effort. Thanks in Advance. 

[Chuck Uebele]

I wasn't sure about the dimensions. You can hard code that into the default for the UI, so that it comes up automatically, but you can then change it easily, if you want. 

[Vibi Dev]

Ya, I get it. But I would like to input multiple artboard dimensions. So I was wondering about a way to do that in the script.

[Chuck Uebele]

You could do that. Just make some arrays to hold the width and height of the various dimensions, and then in tje if statement that checks for the matching sizes, you can enter an or operator to include all the sizes, or just hard code the sizes directly into the if statement. 

[Vibi Dev]

Ya sure, Chuck. I will do that. Could you please help me with the below challenge as discussed earlier? 
Whenever the text layer is inside a group, the script doesn't work or gives an error. Is there a way to fix it? Please let me know.

[Chuck Uebele]

Yea, I'll try and work on it later, today. 

[Chuck Uebele]

One more time. This will change the text layer within a group. To add more sizes, you have to add them to the if statement that is commented about adding sizes. The different size should be separated by the double pipe symbol ||, which stands for "or". The different sizes should be set in parentheses.

#target photoshop

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var oldPref = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;

var ab, aLayer

var defaultValue = '';
var desktopHead = prompt("Paste your new headline", defaultValue);

var docLayers = doc.layers.length; //getting top layers because artboards are top layers

for(var i=0;i<docLayers;i++){
    doc.activeLayer = doc.layers[i];
    aLayer = doc.activeLayer
    ab = artboard_rectangle(doc.activeLayer);
    if(((ab[2]-ab[0]) == 1000 && (ab[3]-ab[1]) == 1000) || ((ab[2]-ab[0]) == 400 && (ab[3]-ab[1]) == 500)){//add more sizes here
            findTextLayer (aLayer)
            }//end if for artboard size
    }//end for loop

app.preferences.rulerUnits = oldPref;

function findTextLayer(pLayer){
    var layLen = pLayer.layers.length;
    for(var j = 0;j<layLen;j++){
        doc.activeLayer = pLayer.layers[j];
        var layerRef = doc.activeLayer
        if(pLayer.layers[j].typename == 'LayerSet'){
            findTextLayer (pLayer.layers[j]);           
            }//end if for finding layerset
        else{
            if (layerRef.kind === LayerKind.TEXT) {
                if(layerRef.textItem.font === "Arial-BoldMT"){//make sure you have correct font name
                    layerRef.textItem.contents = desktopHead;
                    }//end if for text font
                }//end if for layerkind text            
            }//end else
        };//end for loop
    
    };//end function

function artboard_rectangle(layer)
    {
    try {        
        var r    = new ActionReference();    
        r.putProperty(stringIDToTypeID("property"), stringIDToTypeID("artboard"));
        if (layer) r.putIdentifier(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), layer.id);
        else       r.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), stringIDToTypeID("ordinal"), stringIDToTypeID("targetEnum"));
        var d = executeActionGet(r).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboard")).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboardRect"));
        var bounds = new Array();
        bounds[0] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("left"));
        bounds[1] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("top")); 
        bounds[2] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("right"));
        bounds[3] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("bottom"));                                

        return bounds;
        }
    catch(e) { alert(e); }
    }

[Chuck Uebele]

I made a slight change to the script. I put the artboard dimensions into single variables, so that the if statement, listing the sizes, isn't so long and will be easier to add more sizes.

#target photoshop

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var oldPref = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;

var ab, aLayer, aW, aH

var defaultValue = '';
var desktopHead = prompt("Paste your new headline", defaultValue);

var docLayers = doc.layers.length; //getting top layers because artboards are top layers

for(var i=0;i<docLayers;i++){
    doc.activeLayer = doc.layers[i];
    aLayer = doc.activeLayer
    ab = artboard_rectangle(doc.activeLayer);
    aW = ab[2]-ab[0];
    aH = ab[3]-ab[1];
    if((aW == 1000 && aH == 1000) || (aW == 400 && aH == 500)){//add more sizes here
            findTextLayer (aLayer)
            }//end if for artboard size
    }//end for loop

app.preferences.rulerUnits = oldPref;

function findTextLayer(pLayer){
    var layLen = pLayer.layers.length;
    for(var j = 0;j<layLen;j++){
        doc.activeLayer = pLayer.layers[j];
        var layerRef = doc.activeLayer
        if(pLayer.layers[j].typename == 'LayerSet'){
            findTextLayer (pLayer.layers[j]);           
            }//end if for finding layerset
        else{
            if (layerRef.kind === LayerKind.TEXT) {
                if(layerRef.textItem.font === "Arial-BoldMT"){//make sure you have correct font name
                    layerRef.textItem.contents = desktopHead;
                    }//end if for text font
                }//end if for layerkind text            
            }//end else
        };//end for loop
    
    };//end function

function artboard_rectangle(layer)
    {
    try {        
        var r    = new ActionReference();    
        r.putProperty(stringIDToTypeID("property"), stringIDToTypeID("artboard"));
        if (layer) r.putIdentifier(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), layer.id);
        else       r.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), stringIDToTypeID("ordinal"), stringIDToTypeID("targetEnum"));
        var d = executeActionGet(r).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboard")).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboardRect"));
        var bounds = new Array();
        bounds[0] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("left"));
        bounds[1] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("top")); 
        bounds[2] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("right"));
        bounds[3] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("bottom"));                                

        return bounds;
        }
    catch(e) { alert(e); }
    }

[Vibi Dev]

This is awesome Chuck. This is working great. This script also turns all the inactive layers in the current artboard into active ones (layer Visibility off --> on). Do you know why that is happening? Thanks in advance. 

[Vibi Dev]

It actually turns on all the inactive layers above the text layer in the artboard to be precise. 

[Chuck Uebele]

Now that you mention it, I think so. It has to do with the fact that while it's looping through the layers, it is making that layer active, which also makes it visible. Ill6have to see about that.

[Chuck Uebele · Accepted solution]

This script should keep the layers visibility the same.

#target photoshop

var doc = app.activeDocument;
var oldPref = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;

var ab, aLayer, aW, aH

var defaultValue = '';
var desktopHead = prompt("Paste your new headline", defaultValue);

var docLayers = doc.layers.length; //getting top layers because artboards are top layers

for(var i=0;i<docLayers;i++){
    aLayer = doc.layers[i];
    ab = artboard_rectangle(aLayer);
    aW = ab[2]-ab[0];
    aH = ab[3]-ab[1];
    if((aW == 1000 && aH == 1000) || (aW == 400 && aH == 500)){//add more sizes here
            findTextLayer (aLayer)
            }//end if for artboard size
    }//end for loop

app.preferences.rulerUnits = oldPref;

function findTextLayer(pLayer){
    var layLen = pLayer.layers.length;
    for(var j = 0;j<layLen;j++){
        var layerRef = pLayer.layers[j];
        if(pLayer.layers[j].typename == 'LayerSet'){
            findTextLayer (pLayer.layers[j]);           
            }//end if for finding layerset
        else{
            if (layerRef.kind === LayerKind.TEXT) {
                if(layerRef.textItem.font === "Arial-BoldMT"){//make sure you have correct font name
                    layerRef.textItem.contents = desktopHead;
                    }//end if for text font
                }//end if for layerkind text            
            }//end else
        };//end for loop
    
    };//end function

function artboard_rectangle(layer)
    {
    try {        
        var r    = new ActionReference();    
        r.putProperty(stringIDToTypeID("property"), stringIDToTypeID("artboard"));
        if (layer) r.putIdentifier(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), layer.id);
        else       r.putEnumerated(stringIDToTypeID("layer"), stringIDToTypeID("ordinal"), stringIDToTypeID("targetEnum"));
        var d = executeActionGet(r).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboard")).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID("artboardRect"));
        var bounds = new Array();
        bounds[0] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("left"));
        bounds[1] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("top")); 
        bounds[2] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("right"));
        bounds[3] = d.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID("bottom"));                                

        return bounds;
        }
    catch(e) { alert(e); }
    }

[Vibi Dev]

This is perfect, Chuck. Thanks again for all the effort. You are amazing 👏 

[Chuck Uebele]

Glad it's working out. There always seems to be some little glitch, when writing scripts.

[Vibi Dev]

Hey Chuck, I have been trying to modify this script but couldn't achieve the right results. If you could help me, it would be really appreciated. Totally two things that I would like to modify it, 

1) Whenever there is the word "discount" in the sentence "Get 20% discount" which is given as input, the word "Discount" alone has to turn Green in color.  Get 20% discount --> Get 20% discount
2) Whenever there is a number "1" in the sentence "Get 20% discount1", the number has to turn into a superscript.  Get 20% discount1 ---> Get 20% discount¹

Thanks in advance.