The basic idea that I want to try is this: Given a series of elements, I want to create a vertically striped mask that will cover all of the elements with some overlap on either side. Each of the vertical stripes will be placed "C" pixels apart from each other horizontally  where C=number of images. The vertical stripes will cover all of the images. How I do it now, is I create a compound path of vertical 1px wide stripes separated by "C" pixels for the entire width (plus 2xC  for overlap). I then place a copy of the compound path aligned with the first image (offset horizontally by "-C" pixels) and select both the compound path and the layer to create a clipping mask. I repeat this for each shape, but offset the compound path by 1 px horizontally each times (for a total of "C" clipping masks.   I have tried to duplicate this in the code below but I'm not that great at JS so I used the Jquery library (which I am also not that great at). I fgure there are easier ways to accomplish this, so please let me know. I am famous for making things much harder than they need to be.    Thanks for taking the time to consider this.    //PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS PSUEDO CODE USING JQUERY-ishness //There may be much better ways to do with the Illustrator API. //assumes a series of shapes of class shape /* Overview: Given a series of shapes, find the min and max x and y coordinates to determine the sie of the mask (subtract the count of shapes from min and and to max for overlap of mask). Draw a series of rectangles 1px wide every (shapecount) pixels for the entire width. Combine those into a compound shape (no idea how) For each shape, clone the mask compound shape and place it above the shape. Select the shape and the compound shape and make a clipping mask. DONE!*/ //getDims -- simple util for getting the x,y,w,h for all shapes combined function getDims(lst) { let xmin = 0, ymin = 0, xmax = 0, ymax = 0; lst.each(function () { let elem = this; let dims = elem.getBoundingClientRect(); xmin = Math.floor(Math.min(xmin, dims.left)); ymin = Math.floor(Math.min(ymin, dims.top)); xmax = Math.ciel(Math.max(dims.right, xmax)); ymax = Math.ciel(Math.max(dims.bottom, ymax)); }); return { x: xmin, y: ymin, w: xmax - xmin, h: ymax - ymin }; } let shapesList = $(".shape"); let c = shapesList.length; let dims = getDims(shapesList); let w = dims.width + 2 * c; let h = dims.height + 2 * c; //simple function for building the mask svg element to cover the width/height with vertical stripes separated by the number of pixels=count of images function buildMask() { let maskSVG = "<svg height='" + h + "' width='" + w + "' viewBox='0 0 " + w + " " + h + "'> "; //interior function to repeat the lenticule function drawLent(x) { maskSVG += "<rect x='" + x + "' width='1' height='" + h + "' fill='#000000'/>"; } let x = 0; let lc = Math.floor(w / c); for (let i = 0; i < lc; i++) { x += c * i; drawLent(x); } maskSVG += "</svg>"; let mask = $("<div></div>"); mask.innerHTML(maskSVG); return mask; } let mask = buildMask(); shapesList.each(function (i) { let shape = $(this); let shapeMask = mask.clone(); shapeMask.offset({ left: i + (dims.x - c), top: dims.y }); let z = shape.css("z-index"); z -= 1; shapeMask.css("z-index", z); //do something magical to define a mask using shapeMask and shape //probably something like shape.applyMask(shapeMask); }); });     ... View more

I am posting this here after working with a file for the last several hours. I have wasted an entire day on this project and I cannot believe that this can be so difficult.   I downloaded the Police Collision Report used by the Police in Georgia when reporting a traffic accident. I got the file directly from the GADOT website in .pdf format. It is one of about 10 different documents that I downloaded.    I need to create colored boxes and custom-numbered annotations behind a lot of the fields in this form. The form uses Arial, Arial Bold, and Times New Roman.   When I open the file in Acrobat Pro, everything looks as good as can be expected. I can choose the Edit PDF tool and modify the field labels throughout the form. Buit because of the limited graphics features on Acrobat, I am going to have to create these custom annotations in Illustrator.   Of the 10 documents that I downloaded, this the only document that has a problem opening in Illustrator. All of the other documents work great, I can edit the text, use the path tools to ensure that my shapes are always perfectly aligned with no overlapping. I can use Graphic Styles to ensure that things look consistent and Character Styles for my text. Effortless. And then I can save the file and still open it in Acrobat and everything is great.   However, this one file simply does not let me have access to the text. It's all TOFU boxes. And the odd thing is that Page 2 of this document is the exact document that I downloaded separately and it works fine on its own. In this document, tofu, tofu, tofu. To give you an idea how many things I have tried, here's the list. I can guarantee that I have tried more than I am going to list, but this is enough to express my dismay and perhaps provide some insight into what the problem is. First, I verified that I had Arial and Arial Bold, TimesNewRoman, and TimesNewRoman Bold installed. I opened the file in Acrobat Pro and performed a Save As Other.... to create a new PDF from Acrobat. Did not help. I printed the file to my Windows Adobe PDF printer and verified that I had embedded the fonts in the printer profile before printing. It simply created outlines for all text in the final output. I even tried to use Illustrator's RETYPE beta feature and I think it would have worked but I had to manually match the font on over 500 different elements--took too long, still not working. I tried saving the file in different PDF configurations from PDFA to PDFX nothing helped. I tried printing the document to an image, then opening the document and had Acrobat OCR the text. From there, I saved as a pdf document and the problem remained.  I have tried using a different typeface for the entire document in Acrobat (which wasn't easy) and still justr tofu.  I have created other documents as PDF documents and they open fine. I have run Preflight on the document to determine if there are nay problems and everything looks good.  I have tried non-adobe PDF editors and nothing worked. I have tried repairing the document-no help. I hve tried downloading a second copy--still no help. I have uninstalled the fonts in question, restarted and opened the file expecting it would prompt me to replace the fonts in Illustrator--nope. I have re-installed the fonts in question and restarted with no help either. I have used a non-beta version of Illustrator--no luck.  I have posted a similar request to the Illustrator forums and of course, the all sent me here.   Here is a link to the document from the DOT website:DOT-523.pdf  Here is a link to another document from the same location that works: CrashReporting/overlay.pdf    Again, all I need is to be able to open the DOT-523.PDF document in Illustrator to make same layout changes that cannot be done in Acrobat. I need this file to act like all of the other files from the same site that work fine in Illustrator.    Thanks in advance for any support. I promise I have spent the last 5 hours at least searching for a solution, following various sets of well-intentioned plans, suffering through nasty comments by Acrobat fans about Illustrator, nasty comments about Acrobat from Illustrator fans, and nothing has worked.  ... View more

I needed to provide comments on a police report and every time I tried to do it with Acrobat, it struggled to select the correct text or fields. It was a complete mess. No matter which type of annotation I selected or whether I edited the properties of every comment (there were more than 100) to leave the author field and subject field blank, it just ignored me when it comes to summarizing the comments.  And because every comment had this header with a pedantic icon that I didn't want, with Author: field that I didn't want, with the time and the subject--all of which I didn't want, it became quickly impossible to rely on Acrtobat in any capacity for annotations.   No problem, I'll export the original form to HTML and manage comments myself using Javascript and my own comment library.    The HTML that Adobe produced from the original document is terrible. Not only is it functionally terrible, but it looks nothing like the original. It's not even recognizable as the same document.    So when I started to think about it, surely Adobe can do better than this. Why are the messing up HTML? Then it dawned on me that they are just protecting their interest. If you could easily produce your forms in HTML rather than relying on Acrobat, they would lose customers. So they hobble their export engines and pretend that we should just accept this lower standard if we want to use industry standard HTML and CSS for our work.   I figure it's either that or gross incompetene. Does anyone have any insight into why Adobe would do this that isn't as nefarious as it seems? I'd like to believe Adobe is better than that, but I'm seriously beginning to wonder.    So Acrobat Fan Boys, help me out here. ... View more

I have collected dozens of useful scripts over the years and I am constantly having to find the scritps again and again every time Illustrator gets updated. I have probably five different versions running on my machine because I don't want to be shut out of a working version that I have a project in. It may be unreasonable or susperstitious, but it's the way it is. How do you manage to keep your scripts available in each new version? Do you move your scripts folder? Do you store them in a non-standard centralized location that is easy to navigate to? Do you just struggle through trying to remember if the script was last used in pre-release, beta, the last public build? Is there any way to make this easier? I'm on Windows and every time I start up Illustrator, I have to restore my workspace, find my scripts and copy them to the latest version of Illustrator which isn't always intuitive.   Any help would be greatly appreciated. ... View more