There is no printable "background" in Illustrator. Everything in the design is an object. Create a rectangle; fill it with the desired color; send it to the back. JET ... View more

Illustrator's Javascript model does not provide for dialogs as does Photoshop's and InDesign's. Simple alert() and prompt() work. See the Bridge Javascript Reference for instructions and samples on creating more elaborate dialogs that can work in Illustrator. JET ... View more

Adolfo, After a little experimentation, making a script that moves sublayers to become top-level layers while maintaining the same relative stacking order between them is fairly trivial. But what if a layer contains a mix of sublayers and loose objects? Moving the sublayers so that they become top level layers will change the overall stacking order of the illustration, because doing so would move the sublayers to locations above or below the loose objects. Is that or is that not a problem in your situation? JET ... View more

> What Hakoon wants, and myself also, is a plugin or script with which you can have illustrator automatically snap the size of the artboard to the bounding box of the artwork... As for scripting: The AI scripting model provides read-only access to the current document Artboard size. JET ... View more

I think you could automate (or semi-automate) significant parts of your problem, and probably save yourself significant time. The solution may be a combination of Javascript and Actions. But you are going to need the person doing the scripting dedicated to your problem for a while. You need to bring someone in to look at the problem, consider all the specifics and caveats, and then build you a solution. Because you don't really have control over the material you receive, you don't have a simple, consistent problem that can be fixed by an exchange in a user forum. JET ... View more

The below speaks in the context of AI Javascript. I don't mess with Applescript, and have only dinked around a little with VBA. > Can the following procedure be automated? > 1) Select the art on the dieline layer, group it, color it ZDIE, set it to a 1pt overprinting stroke. Yes, this can be scripted. This can also be automated by an Action, if you provide a way to isolate the paths you want selected (i.e., group them and give the group a name; hide all layers, then show just the die layer, then select all.) > 2) Determine the size of the outer dimensions of the die (bounding box)... Yes, this can be scripted. The script can select and/or get the dimensions and position of objects (including groups) or selections. But... > ...and change the document setup to (Width of die + 1/2") X (Height of die + 1/2") OPTIONAL: If wider than high, make the long side the height. ...this is where you get into problems. To my knowledge, the Artboard bounds are read-only properties in the scripting model, and cannot be changed for the current document. The workaround is to script methods of the app object to create a new document with the desired dimensions, select/copy/cut objects in the original document and paste into the new. > 3) Select all art/layers, and center it to the artboard based on the bounding box of the die layer (so the die is centered, with 1/4" to the edge of the document on all sides), rotating all art if necessary, based on if the document width/height were flipped in step 2. Yes, this can be scripted. May be a bit involved, and possibly run slow, depending on how consistently the documents are structured. That is, if there is little consistency, the script may have to use several loops to cycle through all the objects in a layer, get their collective bounds, move them accordingly, etc.--in order to accommodate all carelessly-constructed caveats. These things are not clear from your description: You receive the documents that need to be reworked from outside sources, correct? The recieved documents already have the appropriate diecut artwork in place, correct? If so, is the diecut artwork properly built? (That is, is it on its own layer; does it contain only the correct objects, do the paths already have the correct Appearnaces [stroke, weight, etc.]?) Are all the diecuts the same, or do you have a collection of different ones? If the diecut artwork is included in files from outside sources, where do the outside sources get the die cut artwork in the first place? If you provide them, why don't you provide them as template files that already have the diecuts correctly positioned on the correctly-sized Artboard? Are other workarounds of the Artboard size problem vialble? For example, if the die cut path data is being sent to a plotter, does the diecut artwork really have to be centered on the Artboard, or does the diecut artwork only need to have its origin at .25Y, .25X relative to the Artboard origin? Or, would definition of a new Crop Area .25" beyond the bounds of the diecut artwork suffice instead of changing the size of the Artboard? Have you fully explored a simpler macro-based (Actions) solution instead of scripting? For example, starting with a master file that contains only the proper diecut art and Artboard setup, it may be possible to batch-process an Action that: 1. Opens the first file that you store in an "Incoming" folder. 2. Unlocks all objects and layers. 3. Deletes the diecut layer. 4. Selects all. 5. Groups. 5. Copies. 6. Pastes into the master file. 7. Aligns to Artboard. 8. Saves to an "Output" folder. 9. Repeats for all the other files in the Incoming folder. JET ... View more

Norbert, There are many things available to the UI that are not accessible via the script implemention. For example, look no further than path fills and strokes. In the UI, a path can have multiple strokes and fills. There is no support for that in the scripting reference. JET ... View more

Both of the scripts mentioned work in CS3. JET ... View more

See the descriptions of two scripts on this page and this page named "ReplaceWithSymbol" and "RandomReplaceSymbol". ReplaceWithSymbol replaces the objects in the current selection with instances a Symbol of your choosing that exists in your Symbols Palette. RandomReplaceSymbol randomly replaces selected Symbol Instances with Instances of the other Symbols in the current Symbol Palette. So with those scripts, there are several ways to approach what you describe. For example: 1. Put any Symbol Instance on the page. 2. Use Transform Effect to create your grid. 3. Expand the Transform Appearance. 3. Use RandomReplaceSymbol to swap out the Symbols. or 1. Draw a rectangle (or any other shape). 2. Rasterize it. 3. Use Filter>Create>ObjectMosaic to create a grid of rectangular paths. Ungroup the results. 4. Drag a Symbol Instance (any will do) onto the page. 5. Select everything and run the ReplaceWithSymbol script. 6. Select the array of Instances and run the RandomReplaceSymbol script. ...and so on. JET ... View more

The .zip archive on this page contains a simple script called JET_ReversePath.jsx. JET ... View more

(Why does the Edit page not allow for deletion of a post during the edit time limit? I exceeded the allowed length; the edit page gives no warning that the message will be truncated; so I gave up on re-typing it.) ... View more

Either of two solutions should work. Both would be quite similar to the script I mentioned: Either... Incrementally increase/decrease the textRange character size in a for loop, checking the count of visible lines/characters on each iteration or... Incrementally scale (proportionally) the textFrame in a for loop, checking the count of visible lines/characters on each iteration. Then scale the whole object so as to match the original dimensions. JET ... View more

Guy, Having trouble understanding why you need a script for this. You can do what you describe with a Batch Action, as Kurt suggested. 1. Record an Action which exports as PNG. 2. Batch run the Action, using DataSets as the Source. JET ... View more

No, Harbs, I do not know Mark from Adam. Mark, if you do represent Adobe in this forum, why not sign your posts so as to indicate the fact? JET ... View more

Not sure I am interpreting the question correctly, but it sounds like you are talking about needing to auto-fit the height of an AreaType object to its text content, so as to accommodate different lengths of text that are imported into the bound textFrame variable. Unlike better text handling in other programs, Illustrator textFrame objects do not provide a vertical auto-fit capability to avoid overset text. There have been several attempts to script a workaround for the long-needed auto-fit capability. Mine is referenced in this thread. The alternative would be to use a PointType object as the bound textFrame, and include carriage returns in your dataset values. JET ... View more

Is this "survey" actually sponsored by Adobe? If Adobe wants to make scripting more popular among its rank-and-file users, it should: Provide more samples in the Scripting Reference. At least one for each method, for example. Make the scripting documentation easier to find on the website. PARTICIPATE in its own User Forums. (Compare the participation of Olav Kvern in the InD forum, for example, to the non-participation in this AI forum.) FIX the dang things that users have been complaining about since scripting was first implemented. (Ex: Can't reliably call an AI Javascript from an AI Action.) Provide a decent built-in mechanism for storing and launching scripts. Compare InD's Scripts palette to Illustrator's tedious File>Scripts sub-menu. PAY ATTENTION to your own users in your own user forums, instead of publishing "surveys" that never ask the right questions. JET ... View more

It could be done with Javascript, but shouldn't have to be, given that Illustrator has a Transform Each dialog. It should reside there in the form of a relative/absolute radio button option. There should also be a checkbox for Proportional, so one doesn't have to key the same value in both scale fields. Same goes for Transform Effect dialog. Random should be provided as separate checkboxes for the Scale, Move, and Rotate areas, instead of just one for all three. JET ... View more

Why don't you just doubleClick the text object when you select it, or tap the T key? JET ... View more

Illustrator doesn't have that feature. There are many commands in Illustrator's user interface that are not accessible by scripts. JET ... View more

I find Illustrator's snaps unreliable, unless zoomed in to 100% or more. Never had that problem in FreeHand. Further, David is correct in turning snaps off. He's trying to achieve a minimal nudge. Snaps interfere with that. As Scott said, the nudge value is the Keyboard Increment setting in Preferences>General. JET ... View more

Yes, but it's also possible with the UI. Object>Path>Cleanup... JET ... View more

Making most objects selected is simply a matter of setting its .selected property to true: myObject.selected=true; Trickier is telling the script which object to select. Open the AI Javascript Reference, do a search for ".selected =", and you will find numerous examples. JET ... View more

Use a for loop:<br /><br />var numSwatches=prompt("How many Swatches do you want?", 12);<br /><br />for(i=0;i<numSwatches;i++){<br /><br />[do stuff];<br /><br />}<br /><br />JET ... View more

VERSION? Assuming CS3: Forget the Blend. 1. Polygon Tool: Draw the equilateral triangle. 2. Use one of the methods described above to find the center of gravity. Position a vertical and horizontal guide there to mark the spot. or... When drawing the triangle, mousedown on some other snapable coordinate, like an anchorPoint of an existing path, or the Artboard origin. Then AltShiftDrag to draw the triangle outward from its center. 3. WhitePointer: Drag a marquee selection around TWO of the triangle's anchorPoints. Click the Convert Selected Anchor Points To Curve button. (Stop to catch your breath after saying that.) 4. Drag a selection marquee around the triangle's other anchorPoint. Click the Convert Selected Anchor Points To Curve (pant, pant) button. Now you should have the bulgy triangle you describe. To adjust the bulginess... 5. Select>Object>DirectionHandles. 6. Scale Tool. Click (don't drag) the center point described in step 2, to set the center of transformation there. ShiftDrag to scale all the handles as desired. JET ... View more

Several things come to mind: > I'm hoping to do the script in JAVA because I'll be writing it on a PC but will only be able to test it and apply it on a MAC I assume you mean Javascript. Java and Javascript are two entirely different things. > Cycle through each artwork item (and each stroke and fill for each artwork item) AI's Javascript implementation does not provide access to multiple fills / strokes on one path. What version of AI are you using? Are the colors involved reliably defined as Global? JET ... View more

I read the tooltip on the associated icon: JET ;-) ... View more

1. Gradient Palette: Click the color stop. 2. Tap the < key. 3. DoubleClick the current Fill color in either Color Palette or the Fill/Stroke icon at the bottom of the main toolbox. JET ... View more

> If anyone knows of a document that explains how to think about the coordinate space in Illustrator, that could help me. Vector artwork, despite the eye-candy, is really a process of plotting points on a 2D Cartesian coordinate grid. Illustrator abides by the normal convention for a cartesian coordinate system: Positive values move upward and rightward. Negative values move downward and leftward.(Remember high shool algebra, geometry, trig?) Same goes for most drawing programs, CAD & 3D. Look up any explanation of Bezier or spline curves and you'll see that the explanations also conform to the Cartesian norm. Web-centric and page-layout programs tend toward the top-downward approach because their focus is on text, which flows from top to bottom. Raster imaging programs paint a grid of rows and columns called "pixels", so they follow the top-down convention like a spreadsheet. Although Flash is more drawing than text, it "follows along" because it is primarily web-centric. JET ... View more

You might take a look at this thread: James Talmage, "Spot color labels- printing problem" #5, 1 Jan 2008 1:14 am JET ... View more