Macromedia Illustrator - CS5 Scripting Guide

ADOBE® ILLUSTRATOR® CS5

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5

SCRIPTING GUIDE

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Guide

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Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California 95110, USA. Notice to U.S. Government End Users. The Software and Documentation are “Commercial Items,” as that term is defined at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, consisting of “Commercial Computer Software” and “Commercial Computer Software Documentation,” as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §227.7202, as applicable. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §§227.7202-1 through

227.7202-4, as applicable, the Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation are being licensed to U.S. Government end users (a) only as Commercial Items and (b) with only those rights as are granted to all other end users pursuant to the terms and conditions herein. Unpublished-rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States. Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704, USA. For U.S. Government End Users, Adobe agrees to comply with all applicable equal opportunity laws including, if appropriate, the provisions of Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 402 of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (38 USC 4212), and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the regulations at 41 CFR Parts 60-1 through 60-60, 60-250, and 60-741. The affirmative action clause and regulations contained in the preceding sentence shall be incorporated by reference.

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What is scripting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Why use scripting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What about actions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Scripting language support in Adobe Illustrator CS5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Script file extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

JavaScript development options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Viewing sample scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Viewing the object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Viewing the JavaScript object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Viewing the AppleScript object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Viewing the VBScript object model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Executing scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Installing scripts in the Scripts menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Executing scripts from the Other Scripts menu item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Startup scripts (.jsx scripts only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Changes in CS5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Ruler origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Enumeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Data class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Known issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2 The Illustrator Scripting Object Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Object-naming conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Top-level (containing) objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The artwork tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Art styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Color objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Text objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Text frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Objects that represent text content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Text styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Dynamic objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Contents 4

3 Scripting Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Launching and quitting Illustrator from a script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Launching and activating Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Quitting Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Working with objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Getting the frontmost document or layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Creating new objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Collection objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Selected objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Notes on renaming objects stored in the application’s panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Measurement units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Em space units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Page-item positioning and dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Art item bounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Paths and shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

User-interaction levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Printing Illustrator documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4 Scripting with AppleScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

For more information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Your first Illustrator script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Adding features to “Hello World” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Object references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Obtaining objects from documents and layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Creating new objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Working with selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Working with text frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Threaded frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Creating paths and shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Working with the perspective grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Use perspective presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Show or hide the grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Set the active plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Draw on a perspective grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Bring objects into perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5 Scripting with JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

For more information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Your first Illustrator script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Adding features to “Hello World” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Working with methods in JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Accessing and referencing objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Referencing the application object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Contents 5

Accessing objects in collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Creating new objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Working with selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Working with text frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Threaded frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Creating paths and shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Working with the perspective grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Use perspective presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Show or hide the grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Set the active plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Draw on a perspective grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Bring objects into perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

6 Scripting with VBScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

For more information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Your first Illustrator script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Adding features to “Hello World” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Accessing and referencing objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Obtaining objects from collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Creating new objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Working with selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Working with text frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Threaded frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Creating paths and shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Working with enumeration values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Working with the perspective grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Use perspective presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Show or hide the grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Set the active plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Draw on a perspective grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Bring objects into perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Introduction

This guide describes the scripting interface to Adobe® Illustrator® CS5.

If you are new to scripting or want basic information about scripting and how to use the different scripting languages, see Adobe Introduction to Scripting.

What is scripting?

A script is a series of commands that tells Illustrator to perform one or more tasks. These tasks can be simple, affecting only one object in the current document, or complex, affecting objects in all your Illustrator documents. The tasks might even involve other applications, like word processors, spreadsheets, and database management programs.

For the most part, the building blocks of scripting correspond to the Illustrator tools, menus, panels, and dialog boxes with which you are already an expert. If you know what you want Illustrator to do, you can write a script to do it.

Why use scripting?

Graphic design is a field characterized by creativity, but aspects of the work are anything but creative. In fact, you probably notice that the time you spend placing and replacing images, correcting errors in text, and preparing files for printing at an image-setting service provider often reduces the time you have available for doing creative work.

With a small investment of time and effort, you can learn to write short, simple scripts that perform repetitive tasks for you. As your scripting skills grow, you can move on to more complex scripts.

Scripting also can enhance your creativity, by quickly performing tasks you might not have time to try. For example, you could write a script to systematically create a series of objects, modifying the new objects’ position, stroke, and fill properties along the way. You also could write a script that accesses built-in transformation matrix functions to stretch, scale, and distort a series of objects. Without scripting, you would likely miss out on the creative potential of such labor-intensive techniques.

What about actions?

Both actions and scripts are ways of automating repetitive tasks, but they work very differently:

X Actions use a program’s user interface to do their work. As an action runs, menu choices are executed,

objects are selected, and recorded paths are created. Scripts do not use a program’s user interface to perform tasks, and scripts can execute faster than actions.

X Actions have very limited facilities for getting and responding to information. You cannot add

conditional logic to an action; therefore, actions cannot make decisions based on the current situation, like changing the stroke type of rectangles but not ellipses. Scripts can get information and make decisions and calculations based on the information they receive from Illustrator.

X A script can execute an action, but actions cannot execute scripts.

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Scripting language support in Adobe Illustrator CS5 7

Scripting language support in Adobe Illustrator CS5

Illustrator scripting supports VBScript and JavaScript scripts for Windows, and AppleScript and JavaScript scripts for Mac OS.

Script file extensions

For a file to be recognized by Adobe Illustrator CS5 as a valid script file, the file must have the correct file name extension:

Script type File type (extension) Platforms

AppleScript compiled script (

OSAS file (no extension)

JavaScript or ExtendScript text (

VBScript text (

.js or.jsx) Windows

.vbs)Windows

JavaScript development options

You can use the ExtendScript Toolkit to create JavaScript scripts explicitly for Illustrator, or you can use the Creative Suite Extension Builder and the Creative Suite SDK to develop CS extensions in ActionScript. CS extensions are Flash-based (SWF) and can potentially work in a variety of Creative Suite applications.

Developing a CS5 extension using ActionScript

In Creative Suite 5, the applications have an extensibility infrastructure that allows developers to extend the capabilities of the applications; the infrastructure is based on Flash/Flex technology, and each CS5 extension is delivered as compiled Flash (SWF) file. Creative Suite 5 includes the Extension Manager to enable installation of CS5 extensions.

An example of a CS5 extension that ships with the point products is Adobe Kuler. Kuler has a consistent user interface across the different suite applications, but has different logic in each, adapted to the host application.

.scpt)

Mac OS

The user interface for an extension is written in ActionScript, using the Flex framework. A C5S extension is typically accessed through its own menu item in the application’s Extensions menu. CS Extension Builder allows you to design the user interface interactively using the Design view of FlashBuilder. The Creative Suite SDK also allows you to develop all of the application logic for your CS5 extension in ActionScript; you can develop and debug your extension in the familiar FlashBuilder environment.

To develop your application logic, we recommend using the Creative Suite ActionScript Wrapper Library (

CSAWLib), which exposes the scripting DOM of each host application as an ActionScript library. This is

tightly integrated with the CS Extension Builder environment, which includes wizards to help you build your extension’s basic structure, and run and debug your code against suite applications such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.

The methods, properties, and behavior of the scripting DOM is as described in the JavaScript Scripting

Reference for the host application. For details of how to use CS Extension Builder and the wrapper libraries,

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Viewing sample scripts 8

see the Creative Suite SDK documentation, which is accessible from within the Flash Builder or Eclipse Help system when you have installed CSIDE.

ExtendScript features

If you write Illustrator-specific scripts that use the Illustrator JavaScript DOM directly, you will create ExtendScript files, which are distinguished by the extension (rather than the standard ExtendScript features and tools.

ExtendScript offers all standard JavaScript features, plus a development and debugging environment, the ExtendScript Toolkit (ESTK). The ESTK is installed with all scriptable Adobe applications, and is the default editor for JSX files. The ESTK includes an Object Model Viewer that contains complete documentation of the methods and properties of JavaScript objects. For information on accessing the ESTK and the Object Model Viewer, see “

ExtendScript also provides various tools and utilities, including the following:

X A localization utility

X Tools that allow you to combine scripts and direct them to particular applications

Viewing the JavaScript object model” on page 9.

.js extension for a JavaScript file) allows you to take advantage of

.jsx extension. Giving your JavaScript files a .jsx

X Platform-independent file and folder representation

X Tools for building user interfaces to your scripts

X A messaging framework that allows you to send and receive scripts and data among scripting-enabled

Adobe applications

All of these features are available whether you use the DOM directly with a JSX file, or indirectly through the ActionScript wrapper library and CSIDE. For details of these and other features, see JavaScript Tools Guide.

Viewing sample scripts

Adobe provides sample scripts for many objects, properties, and methods in the Illustrator CS5 DOM. You can view script samples in two locations:

X In the /Scripting/Sample Scripts folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory

X In the Adobe Illustrator CS5 scripting reference for your scripting language, which you can download

from http://www.adobe.com/devnet/illustrator/scripting/

Viewing the object model

Each of the supported scripting languages provides a facility for viewing the scripting objects defined by Illustrator, with reference details.

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Viewing the object model 9

Viewing the JavaScript object model

To view the JavaScript object model for Illustrator, follow these steps:

1. Start the ESTK.

In a default Adobe installation, the ESTK is in the following location:

Z Windows:

system drive\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Utilities CS5\ExtendScript Toolkit CS5

Z Mac OS:

system drive:Applications:Utilities:Adobe Utilities CS5:ExtendScript Toolkit CS5

2. In the ESTK, choose Help > Object Model Viewer.

3. In the Object Model Viewer window, select Adobe Illustrator CS5 Type Library from the Browser drop-down list.

Several extended sample scripts are available in the

/Scripting/Sample Scripts folder in your Illustrator

CS5 installation directory.

You also can view script samples and information about individual classes, objects, properties, methods, and parameters in Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: JavaScript, which you can download from

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/illustrator/scripting/

Viewing the AppleScript object model

Apple provides a Script Editor with all Mac OS systems. You can use Script Editor to view the AppleScript dictionary that describes Illustrator objects and commands.

For details of how to use Script Editor, see Script Editor Help.

1. Start Script Editor.

OTE: In a default Mac OS installation, Script Editor is in Applications:AppleScript:Script

Editor

CD.

2. Choose File > Open Dictionary. Script Editor displays an Open Dictionary dialog.

3. In the Open Dictionary dialog, find and select Adobe Illustrator CS5, and click Open.

Script Editor displays a list of the Illustrator objects and commands, which include the properties and elements associated with each object and the parameters for each command.

. If you cannot find the Script Editor application, you must reinstall it from your Mac OS system

Several extended sample scripts are in the

:Scripting:Sample Scripts folder in your Illustrator CS5

installation directory.

You also can view script samples and information about individual classes, objects, properties, methods and parameters in Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: AppleScript, which you can download from

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/illustrator/scripting/

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Executing scripts 10

Viewing the VBScript object model

VBScript provides a type library you can use to view Illustrator object properties and methods. This procedure explains how to view the type library through any Microsoft Office program. Your VBScript editor probably provides access to the library. For information see your editor’s Help.

1. In any Microsoft Office application, choose Tools > Macro > Visual Basic Editor.

2. In the Visual Basic Editor, choose Tools > References.

3. In the dialog that appears, select the check box for Adobe Illustrator CS5 Type Library, and click OK.

4. Choose View > Object Browser, to display the Object Browser window.

5. Choose “Illustrator” from the list of open libraries in the top-left pull-down menu of the Object Browser window.

Several extended sample scripts are in the installation directory.

You also can view script samples and information about individual classes, objects, properties, methods, and parameters in Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: VBScript, which you can download from

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/illustrator/scripting/

Executing scripts

The Illustrator interface includes a Scripts menu (File > Scripts) that provides quick and easy access to your scripts.

Scripts can be listed directly as menu items that run when you select them. See “

Scripts menu” on page 10.

You can navigate from the menu to any script in your file system and then run the script. See “

scripts from the Other Scripts menu item” on page 11.

You also can have JavaScript scripts with a application. For information, see “

Installing scripts in the Scripts menu

Startup scripts (.jsx scripts only)” on page 11.

/Scripting/Sample Scripts folder in your Illustrator CS5

Installing scripts in the

Executing

.jsx extension start automatically when you launch the

To include a script in the Scripts menu (File > Scripts), save the script in the Scripts folder, located in the

/Illustrator CS5/Presets folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory. The script’s filename,

minus the file extension, appears in the Scripts menu.

Scripts that you add to the Scripts folder while Illustrator is running do not appear in the Scripts menu until the next time you launch Illustrator.

Any number of scripts can be installed in the Scripts menu. If you have many scripts, use subfolders in the Scripts folder to help organize the scripts in the Scripts menu. Each subfolder is displayed as a separate submenu containing the scripts in that subfolder.

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Executing scripts 11

Executing scripts from the Other Scripts menu item

The Other Scripts item at the end of the Scripts menu (File > Scripts > Other Scripts) allows you to execute scripts that are not installed in the Scripts folder.

Selecting Other Scripts displays a Browse dialog, which you use to navigate to a script file. When you select the file, the script is executed.

Only files that are of one of the supported file types are displayed in the browse dialog. For details, see

“

Scripting language support in Adobe Illustrator CS5” on page 7.

Startup scripts (.jsx scripts only)

JavaScript scripts with a .jsx file extension can be installed in one of two folders, so the scripts run automatically when you launch Illustrator and each time you run a script. The folders are:

X An application-specific startup scripts folder, which contains scripts for Illustrator CS5

X A general startup scripts folder, which contains scripts that run automatically when you start any

Creative Suite 5 application

Application-specific startup scripts folder

You must place application-specific startup scripts in a folder named Startup Scripts, which you create in the Illustrator installation directory.

For example, when Illustrator CS5 is installed to its default location, you would create the

Startup Scripts folder at the following location:

X Windows: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Startup Scripts\

X Mac OS: /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5/Startup Scripts/

JavaScript scripts with a

X The application is launched.

X Any JavaScript file is selected from the Scripts menu (File > Scripts).

.jsx extension placed in the Startup Scripts folder run automatically when:

General startup scripts folder

The general startup scripts folder contains scripts that run automatically when you start any Creative Suite 5 application. You create the folder in the following location:

X Windows: Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Startup Scripts CS5/Illustrator

X Mac OS: :Library:Application Support:Adobe:Startup Scripts CS5:Illustrator

If a script in the general startup folder is meant to be executed only by Illustrator, the script must include the ExtendScript

if( BridgeTalk.appName == "illustrator" ) {

//continue executing script

}

#target directive (#target illustrator) or code like the following:

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Changes in CS5 12

For details, see JavaScript Tools Guide.

Changes in CS5

This section lists changes made to the scripting object model to support features in Illustrator CS5.

Ruler origin

In previous releases, the artboard origin, the position with coordinates (0,0), was in the bottom left corner, with positive X increments going left to right, and positive Y increments going bottom to top.

In Illustrator CS5, the artboard origin is defined to be the top left corner of the artboard. Positive X increments still go left to right, but positive Y increments now go top to bottom.

To show rulers, choose View > Rulers > Show Rulers. Use the Info panel (Windows > Info) to inspect the X/Y coordinates of a position.

To avoid breaking existing scripts, Illustrator scripting still uses the legacy coordinate system; that is, all documents created through scripts use the legacy coordinate system. Documents that you create directly in the UI use the new coordinate system. If your script operates on such a document, then in order for the script to behave as it did in CS4, the script must translate the Y coordinate value for any position to -Y, and the reverse when interpreting coordinate values from the document.

Enumeration

X A new enumeration for coordinate system used by Illustrator:

Z AppleScript — artboard coordinate system/document coordinate system

JavaScript — CoordinateSystem

VBScript — AiCoordinateSystem

A new enumeration for registration points for symbols:

Z AppleScript — N/A

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Changes in CS5 13

JavaScript — SymbolRegistrationPoint

Z VBScript — AiSymbolRegistrationPoint

X A new enumeration for perspective grid plane type:

Z AppleScript — floorplane/leftplane/noplane/rightplane

Z JavaScript — PerspectiveGridPlaneType

Z VBScript — AiPerspectiveGridPlaneType

X A new enumeration for the type of text anti-aliasing:

Z AppleScript — crisp/none/sharp/strong

Z JavaScript — TextAntiAlias

Z VBScript — AiTextAntialias

X A new enumeration value for artwork printing orientation:

Z AppleScript — auto rotate

Class

JavaScript — PrintOrientation.AUTOROTATE

Z VBScript — AiAutoRotate

X A new enumeration value for the FXG file format version:

Z AppleScript — version 2.0

JavaScript — FXGVersion.VERSION2PT0

Z VBScript — AiVersion2Pt0

X A new enumeration value for the text preservation policy used by the FXG file format:

Z AppleScript — autoConvert text

JavaScript — TextPreservePolicy.AUTOMATICALLYCONVERTTEXT

Z VBScript — AiAutomaticallyConvertText

X New property for the coordinate system in Application class:

Z AppleScript — coordinate system

Z JavaScript — coordinateSystem

Z VBScript — CoordinateSystem

X New properties in the Artboard class for setting the ruler origin, relative to (0,0) in the top left corner,

and for the artboard name:

Z AppleScript

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Changes in CS5 14

ruler origin of artboard 1 of document 1 name of artboard 1 of document 1

Z JavaScript

activeDocument.artboards[0].rulerOrigin activeDocument.artboards[0].name

Z VBScript

ActiveDocument.Artboards[1].RulerOrigin ActiveDocument.Artboards[1].Name

New method/command in Document class for working with different coordinate systems:

Z AppleScript — convert coordinate

Z JavaScript — app.activeDocument.convertCoordinate()

Z VBScript — App.ActiveDocument.ConvertCoordinate()

X New methods/commands in the Document class for working with multiple artboards:

Z AppleScript

select objects on active artboard fit artboard to selected art rearrange artboards

JavaScript

activeDocument.selectObjectsOnActiveArtboard() activeDocument.fitArtboardToSelectedArt() activeDocument.rearrangeArtboards()

VBScript

ActiveDocument.SelectObjectsOnActiveArtboard() ActiveDocument.FitArtboardToSelectedArt() ActiveDocument.RearrangeArtboards()

New methods/commands in the Document class for working with Perspective Grids:

Z AppleScript

import perspective grid preset export perspective grid preset select perspective preset show perspective grid hide perspective grid get perspective active plane set perspective active plane

JavaScript

app.activeDocument.importPerspectiveGridPreset() app.activeDocument.exportPerspectiveGridPreset() app.activeDocument.selectPerspectiveGrid() app.activeDocument.showPerspectiveGrid() app.activeDocument.hidePerspectiveGrid() app.activeDocument.getPerspectiveActivePlane() app.activeDocument.setPerspectiveActivePlane()

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Changes in CS5 15

VBScript

App.ActiveDocument.ImportPerspectiveGridPreset() App.ActiveDocument.ExportPerspectiveGridPreset() App.ActiveDocument.SelectPerspectiveGrid() App.ActiveDocument.ShowPerspectiveGrid() App.ActiveDocument.HidePerspectiveGrid() App.ActiveDocument.GetPerspectiveActivePlane() App.ActiveDocument.SetPerspectiveActivePlane()

New method in PageItem class for working with Perspective Grids:

Z AppleScript — bring in perspective

Z JavaScript — bringInPerspective()

Z VBScript — BringInPerspective()

X New property in PageItem class for pixel alignment:

Z AppleScript — pixel aligned

JavaScript — pixelAligned

VBScript — PixelAligned

X A new , optional creation argument for the Add method of the Symbols collection that allows you to

set the registration point of new symbols —

X New property in the TextFrameItem class for the type of text anti-aliasing:

Z AppleScript — antialias

Data class

X The class PrintFLOptions is renamed to PrintFlattenerOptions in JavaScript and VBScript. In

AppleScript,

X Changes to properties in the FXGSaveOptions data class:

Z AppleScript

RegistrationPoint.

JavaScript — antialias

VBScript — Antialias

flattening options remains unchanged.

Added:

blends policy

Removed: clip content Changed defaults:

version: from version 1.0 to version 2.0 text policy: from keep text editable to autoConvert text gradients policy

: from keep gradients editable to autoConvert gradients

JavaScript

Added:

blendsPolicy

Removed: clipContent Changed defaults:

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Known issues 16

: from FXGVersion.VERSION1PT0 to FXGVersion.VERSION2PT0

: from textPolicy.KEEPTEXTEDITABLE to AUTOMATICALLYCONVERTTEXT

AUTOMATICALLYCONVERTGRADIENTS

BlendsPolicy

version textPolicy gradientsPolicy: from gradientsPolicy.KEEPGRADIENTSEDITABLE to

VBScript

Added: Removed: ClipContent Changed defaults:

Version: from FXGVersion.VERSION1PT0 to FXGVersion.VERSION2PT0 TextPolicy GradientsPolicy

aiAutomaticallyConvertGradients

New properties in the OpenOptions data class for dealing with artboards:

Z AppleScript

convert crop area to artboard convert tiles to artboard create artboard with artwork bounding box preserve legacy artboard

JavaScript

: from aiKeepTextEditable to aiAutomaticallyConvertText

: from aiKeepGradientsEditable to

convertCropAreaToArtboard convertTilesToArtboard createArtboardWithArtworkBoundingBox preserveLegacyArtboard

VBScript

ConvertCropAreaToArtboard ConvertTilesToArtboard CreateArtboardWithArtworkBoundingBox PreserveLegacyArtboard

Known issues

X Scripts that create, save, and close many Illustrator files should periodically quit and relaunch

Illustrator. The recommended maximum number of files to process before quitting and relaunching Illustrator is:

Z Windows 500 files

Z Mac OS 1000 files

For more information on quitting and relaunching Illustrator, see “

Illustrator” on page 26 and “Quitting Illustrator” on page 27.

Launching and activating

X The “An Illustrator error occurred: 1346458189 (“PARM”)” alert may be popped when badly written

scripts are repeatedly run in Illustrator from the ESTK.

Scripters need to be very careful about variable initialization and namespace conflict when pushing a batch of Illustrator scripts repeatedly for execution in Illustrator via the ESTK in one Illustrator session. Each script run is executed within the same persistent ExtendScript engine within Illustrator.

CHAPTER 1: Introduction Known issues 17

The ESTK debugger uses BridgeTalk to communicate with Illustrator. A single global, persistent, ExtendScript engine inside Illustrator handles all BridgeTalk communications. The net effect is that the state of the ExtendScript engine is cumulative to all scripts that ran previously. Issues with script code that may cause this problem are:

Z Reading uninitialized variables.

Z Global namespace conflicts, such as when two globals from different scripts are clobbering each

other.

X If you create more than one art object in AppleScript and assign each one to a variable, all the

variables are set to the last item. This means that the previously created items are not accessible.

The Illustrator Scripting Object Model

A good understanding of the Illustrator object model will improve your scripting abilities. The following figure shows the containment hierarchy of the object model, starting with the that the contain additional nested objects.

layer and group item classes can contain nested objects of the same class which can, in turn,

application object. Note

In addition to this application-specific object model, JavaScript provides certain utility objects, such as the

File and Folder objects, which give you operating-system-independent access to the file system. For

details, see JavaScript Tools Guide.

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model Object-naming conventions 19

Object-naming conventions

There is one object model for the Illustrator scripting interface, but actual object names vary slightly in the different scripting languages:

X AppleScript names are lower case, and individual words are separated by a space; for example:

graphic style

VBScript names are capitalized, and additional words in the name are indicated by uppercase initial letters; for example:

GraphicStyle

JavaScript names begin with lowercase letters, and additional words in the name are indicated by

uppercase initial letters; for example:

graphicStyle

This chapter uses generic object and property names, but you can easily apply these conventions to determine the corresponding language-specific names.

Throughout this document, names of properties, methods, and object are in a

Top-level (containing) objects

Use these objects to access global information about the Illustrator application or an individual document.

Application

The properties of the application object give your script access to global values, such as:

X User preferences, which a user sets interactively in the Illustrator application by using the

Preferences dialog (Edit > Preferences).

X System information like installed fonts (the text fonts property) and printers (the printer list

property).

Also, there are properties that provide application-specific information and higher-level information about any open documents:

X Application information like the installation path, version, and whether Illustrator is visible.

X The current active document; that is, the art canvas that is displayed and accepting user input.

X All open documents.

monospaced font.

application object’s methods or commands allow your script to perform application-wide actions;

The for example:

X Open files

X Undo and redo transactions

X Quit Illustrator

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model The artwork tree 20

Document

The document object, which your scripts can create or access through the application object, represents an art canvas or loaded Illustrator file. The content; for example:

X The current selection, or art objects that the user selected in the document

X All contained art objects, called page items, that make up the artwork tree

X Art objects of particular types, like symbols and text frames

X All layers and the currently active layer

Document properties also tell you about the state of the document itself; for example:

X User settings for the document, such as ruler units

X Whether the document was saved since the last alteration of content

X The path of the associated file

document object’s methods allow your scripts to act on the document; for example:

The

document object’s properties give you access to the document’s

X Save to an Illustrator file or save as the various supported file formats

X Activate or close a document

X Print the document. Your scripts can select a printer by referencing a print options object, or they

can reference available printers through the application object’s

Layer

The layer object provides access to the contents, or artwork tree, of a specific layer. You access the layer object through the the layer, such as:

X Whether the layer is visible or locked.

X The layer’s opacity (overall transparency) and z order position (position in the stacking order).

X Art-creation preferences for the layer, like artwork knockout and blending mode.

The artwork tree

The content of an Illustrator document is called the artwork tree. Artwork is represented by the following objects:

printer list property.

document object. The layer object properties provide access to, or information about,

X compound path item

X graph item

X group item

X legacy text item

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model The artwork tree 21

X mesh

X non native item

X path item

X placed item

X plugin item

X raster item

X symbol item (see “Dynamic objects” on page 25)

X text frame

Your scripts can access and manipulate art objects through collections in the

item

document and layer objects.

There are two types of art-object collections:

X Collection objects that correspond to each individual artwork object type, such as the graph items

object or the

X The page items object, which includes art objects of all types.

Also, you can use the

You can create new art objects using the collection object. For example, to create a new

mesh items object.

group item object to reference a grouped set of art items.

make command (AppleScript) or add method of an artwork item

path item object:

AppleScript set myPathItem to make new path item in current document

JavaScript var myPathItem = activeDocument.pathItems.add();

VBScript Set myPathItem = appRef.ActiveDocument.PathItems.Add()

The following artwork collections do not allow the creation of new objects using the make command or

add method:

X graph items object

X mesh items object

X plugin items object

X legacy text items object

For details on creating objects of these types, see the Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference for your language.

Art styles

Your script can apply a graphic style to artwork using the graphic style object. To apply a graphic style, use the

style object.

graphic styles property of the document object to access the apply to method of the graphic

Similarly, the through the

brush object allows you to specify the brush to apply to artwork. You access any brush

brushes collection object, which is a property of the document object.

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model Text objects 22

Color objects

Your script can apply a color, pattern or gradient to a path item object, using the fill color or

stroke color properties:

X Scripts can define new color swatches using the make command or add method of the swatches

object. Your script also can create a new spot color, using the

spots object.

X You can define the attributes of an ink object using the ink info object, which is an ink object

property. You access

ink objects through the ink list property of the document object.

The following objects allow you to create colors within defined color spaces:

X The RGB color object, using the range 0.0 to 255.0 for the each of the three individual color values.

X The CMYK color object, using the percentage values 0.0 through 100.0 for each of the four individual

color values.

X The grayscale color or LAB color objects, using the same range and number of values that you use

in the Illustrator application.

make command or add property of the

Tex t objects

When you type content in an Illustrator document, the type automatically becomes a text frame object and, at the same time, a

To observe this, open a new document in Illustrator and use the horizontal text tool to type some text, then use the vertical text tool to type more text. Finally, create a rectangle and type some text inside it. Now run the following JavaScript script:

var myDoc = app.activeDocument alert("There are " + myDoc.textFrames.length + " text frames.") alert("There are " + myDoc.stories.length + " stories.")

Text frames

There are three types of text frames:

X point

X area

X path

story object.

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model Text objects 23

To create a specific kind of text frame, use the kind property of the text frames object in AppleScript. The JavaScript and VBScript

text frames objects contain specific methods for creating area text frames and

path text frames.

As in the Illustrator application, you can thread area or path text frames.

To thread existing text frames, use the Threaded frames make a single

next frame or previous frame property of the text frame object.

story object.

For information on creating or threading text frames, see the chapter in this manual for your scripting language.

Text geometry

While the three kinds of text frames have common characteristics, like orientation, each has type-specific qualities, as reflected in the

X An area text frame can have rows and columns, which you access through the row count and

column count properties.

X Path text has start T value and end T value properties that indicate where on the path the text

begins and ends.

X Area and path text frames are associated with a text path object, which is specified using the

text frame object’s text path property. The text path defines the text frame’s position and

orientation (horizontal or vertical) on the artboard (while the property defines the orientation of text within the text frame).

The

text path property is not valid for point text, because point-text position and orientation are

defined completely by the properties of the text frame itself.

text frame object’s properties. For example:

text frame object’s orientation

OTE: A text path is not the same as a path art item. Text paths are associated with path art items that can

be accessed and manipulated to modify the appearance of the associated text frame.

Objects that represent text content

Within a text frame or story, the actual text content can be accessed as any of the following objects:

X characters

X words

X paragraphs

X lines

line object is all the characters that fit on one line in a text frame or story object. All text-art items

A have at least one line of text, defined as a contains hard line breaks or its characters flow to a new line because they do not fit in the width of the text art. Text objects are accessed and identified by collections within the example,

textFrame("My Text Frame").paragraphs or story("My Story").paragraphs.

line object. Text art can have multiple text lines, if the text

text frame and story objects; for

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model Text objects 24

Both text frame and story objects have insertion point and text selection properties. The text

frame object’s properties also include the defining features of the text frame, such as:

X The frame width, height, and position

X Whether the frame is hidden or locked

X Whether the text is editable

OTE: A line object cannot be created in a script. Your script can create character, paragraph, and word

objects.

Tex t rang es

The various text objects within a text frame or story also are represented collectively by the text range object. For example, a character is a text range with a length of 1, and a word is a text range that has a space before it.

You can set the content of a

Tex t st yle s

Text-style elements, like font, capitalization, and justification, are represented by paragraph

attribute and character attribute objects. These attribute objects are properties of the paragraph style and character style objects. The paragraph style and character style objects have apply to

and

remove methods that allow your script to assign or remove attributes in a specific paragraph,

character, or text range.

You can change the display properties of a text range by applying an appropriate style or providing local overrides of attributes at the text or paragraph levels:

X character style objects apply to sets of one or more characters. They control character features like

font, alignment, leading, language, and capitalization, which are properties of the character attribute object.

X paragraph style objects apply to paragraphs. They control paragraph features like first line

indent, left indent, and right indent, which are properties of the paragraph attribute object.

text range object by passing a string using the contents property.

CHAPTER 2: The Illustrator Scripting Object Model Dynamic objects 25

Dynamic objects

By creating dynamic objects, you can create data-driven graphics. In the Illustrator application, you use the Variables panel to create or edit variables like graph data, linked file, text string, and visibility, or variables whose type is not specified. In scripting, you use the The

variable object’s kind property indicates the type of dynamic data that a variable object holds.

variable objects are document-level objects; you create them in a document object.

OTE: Do not confuse variable objects with scripting variables. For details on Illustrator variables,

dynamic objects, and data-driven graphics, see Illustrator Help.

Datasets, which collect variables and their associated dynamic data into one object, are represented in scripting by the objects in your scripts.

dataset object. The dataset object provides methods to update and delete dataset

variable object to represent this type of variable.

Symbols

In Illustrator, symbols are art items that are stored in the Symbols panel. Your scripts can create, delete, and duplicate Symbols panel for the target document.

symbol objects. When you create symbol objects in your script, Illustrator adds them to the

symbol item is an instance of a symbol object in a document. Each symbol item is linked to its symbol

A definition, so changing the definition of a symbol updates all instances of the symbol.

Your script can create, delete, and duplicate symbol items. Symbol items are Illustrator art items; therefore, they can be treated in the same way as other art items or page items. You can rotate, resize, select, lock, hide, and perform other operations on symbol items.

Transformations

The matrix object provides access to the power of geometric-transformation matrices. Transformation matrices in Illustrator store the settings of an operation that scales, rotates, or moves (translates) an object on a page. There are advantages to using matrices:

X By storing transformation values in a matrix object, you can use the values repeatedly on different

objects in your script.

X By concatenating rotation, translation, and/or scaling matrices and applying the resulting matrix, you

can perform many geometric transformations with only one script statement.

X You can invert matrix values.

X You can compare the values of two matrices.

application object. has commands or methods to create, get, invert, compare, or concatenate

The matrices.

The command or method used to apply a matrix is the of object on which transformations can be performed.

transform command, which belongs to any type

Scripting Illustrator

This chapter is an overview of how to use scripting objects to program Illustrator CS5. Specific examples for the supported scripting languages are in succeeding chapters.

Launching and quitting Illustrator from a script

Your scripts can control the activation and termination of Illustrator.

Launching and activating Illustrator

AppleScript

In AppleScript, you use a tell statement to target Illustrator. The activate command activates Illustrator if it is not already active.

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

activate

end tell

JavaScript

Typically, you run JavaScript scripts from the application’s Scripts menu (File > Scripts) or start-up folder, so there is no need to launch Illustrator from your script.

Information on launching Illustrator in JavaScript is beyond the scope of this guide. For details, search for “interapplication messaging” or “JavaScript messaging framework” in JavaScript Tools Guide.

VBScript

In VBScript, there are several ways to create an instance of Illustrator:

X CreateObject launches Illustrator as an invisible application if it is not already running. If Illustrator is

launched as an invisible application you must manually activate the application to make it visible:

Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application")

If you have multiple versions of Illustrator installed on the same machine and use the CreateObject method to obtain an application reference, using to the latest Illustrator version. To specifically target an earlier version, use a version identifier at the end of the string:

For Illustrator 10, use For Illustrator CS, use For Illustrator CS2, use For Illustrator CS3, use For Illustrator CS4, use For Illustrator CS5, use

"Illustrator.Application.1" "Illustrator.Application.2"

"Illustrator.Application.3" "Illustrator.Application.4" "Illustrator.Application.CS4" "Illustrator.Application.CS5"

"Illustrator.Application" creates a reference

CHAPTER 3: Scripting Illustrator Working with objects 27

Use the New operator if you added a reference to the Illustrator type library to the project. For example,

the following line creates a new reference to the

Set appRef = New Illustrator.Application

Application object:

Quitting Illustrator

AppleScript

Use the quit command:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

quit

end tell

JavaScript

Use the app.quit() method:

app.quit()

VBScript

Use the Application object’s Quit method:

Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application") appRef.Quit

Working with objects

Getting the frontmost document or layer

To refer to the selected document, use the application object’s current document property in AppleScript or the

document object’s current layer or active layer property to refer to the selected layer.

There are other types of “active” or “current” object properties, like details, see the Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference for your language.

Creating new objects

Several objects (besides the application object itself) cannot be obtained from containers or parent objects. Your script must create these objects directly.

active document property in JavaScript or VBScript. Similarly, you can use the

active dataset or active view. For

CHAPTER 3: Scripting Illustrator Working with objects 28

The following objects must be created explicitly:

CMYK color document preset EPS save options export options AutoCAD export options Flash export options GIF export options JPEG export options Photoshop export options PNG8 export options PNG24 export options SVG file folder gradient color gray color Illustrator save options ink

The

file and folder objects are Adobe ExtendScript devices designed to provide platform-independent

access to the underlying file system. For information on using these objects, see JavaScript Tools Guide.

For information on creating an object explicitly, see the chapter for your scripting language.

Collection objects

ink info lab color matrix MXG save options no color open options open options AutoCAD open options FreeHand open options PDF open options Photoshop paper info Pattern color PDF save options PPD file PPD file info print color management options print color separation options

print coordinate options printer printer info print flattener options print font options print job options print options print page marks options print paper options print postscript options raster effect options rasterize options screen screen spot function RGB color spot color tracing options

Most collection objects must be obtained from a container. For example, a path items collection object can be contained by a

document object or a layer object; to obtain an object in a path items collection,

refer to either containing of these objects. For example, see the language-specific sections below.

AppleScript

To refer to a path items object in a document:

path item 1 in document 1

To refer to a path items object in a layer:

path item 1 in layer 1 in document 1

JavaScript

To refer to a path items object in a document:

documents[0].pathItems[1]

To refer to a path items object in a layer:

documents[0].layers[0].pathItems[0]

CHAPTER 3: Scripting Illustrator Working with objects 29

VBScript

To refer to a path items object in a document:

Documents(1).PathItems(1)

To refer to a path items object in a layer:

Documents(1).Layers(1).PathItems(1)

For more examples of collection-item containers, see the document object Elements table in Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: AppleScript or the Properties table in Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: JavaScript or Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: VBScript. A diagram of the Illustrator CS5

object model is in “

The Illustrator Scripting Object Model” on page 18.

Selected objects

Sometimes, you want to write scripts that act on the currently selected object or objects. For example, you might want to apply formatting to selected text or change a selected path’s shape.

Selecting text

To select text, use the select command or method of the text range object.

Selecting art items

You can select an art object (like graph items, mesh items, raster items, and symbol items) by setting its

selected property to true. (In AppleScript, selected is a property of the page items object.)

Referring to selected art items

To refer to all currently selected objects in a document, use the document object’s selection property. To work with the objects in the selection array, you must determine their type, so you will know which properties and methods or commands you can use with them. In JavaScript and VBScript, each artwork object type has a read-only AppleScript, use the

class property.

typename property that you can use to determine the object’s type. In

Notes on renaming objects stored in the application’s panels

Several objects can be renamed; that is, their name property is writeable. The following types of objects can be sorted alphabetically in the corresponding Illustrator panel. If a script modifies the name of such an object, references to that object by index can become invalid.

Brush Gradient Graphic Style Pattern Swatch Symbol Variable

CHAPTER 3: Scripting Illustrator Measurement units 30

Measurement units

Illustrator uses points as the unit of measurement for almost all distances. One inch equals 72 points. The exception is values for properties like composition), which use em units. (See “

Illustrator uses points when communicating with your scripts regardless of the current ruler units. If your script depends on adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing specific measurement values for units other than points, it must perform any unit conversions needed to represent your measurements as points. For example, to use inches for coordinates or measurement units, you must multiply all inch values by 72 when entering the values in your script.

The following table shows conversion formulas for various units of measurement:

Unit Conversion formula

centimeters 28.346 points = 1 centimeter

inches 72 points = 1 inch

millimeters 2.834645 points = 1 millimeter

kerning, tracking, and the aki properties (used for Japanese text

Em space units” on page 30.)

picas 12 points = 1 pica

Qs 0.709 point = 1 Q (1 Q equals 0.23 millimeter)

JavaScript provides the JavaScript Tools Guide.

UnitValue object type, which offers unit-conversion utilities. For details, see

Em space units

Values that use em units instead of points are measured in thousandths of an em.

An em is proportional to the current font size. For example, in a 6-point font, 1 em equals 6 points; in a 10-point font, 1 em equals 10 points. In a 10-point font, a kerning value of 20 em units is equivalent to:

(20 units x 10 points) / 1000 units/em = 0.2 points

Page-item positioning and dimensions

Illustrator uses simple, two-dimensional geometry in the form of points to record the position of

page item objects in a document. Every page item object in a document has a position property that

defines a fixed point as a pair of page coordinates in the format [x, y]. The fixed point is the top-left corner of the object’s bounding box.

For information on the types of objects that comprise the

page 20.

A point is designated by a pair of coordinates:

X The horizontal position, x

X The vertical position, y

page items collection, see “The artwork tree” on

CHAPTER 3: Scripting Illustrator Page-item positioning and dimensions 31

You can see these coordinates in the Info panel when you select or create an object in Illustrator.

For the artboard, the default coordinate origin, (0,0), is the top-left corner, reflected in the property of the

artboard object. X coordinate values increase from left to right, and Y values increase

from top to bottom. This changed in the CS5 release; to maintain script compatability, a document created by a script still uses the older system, with the origin at the bottom left of the artboard, and the Y value increasing from bottom to top. The corner of the printable region of the document as a fixed point.

page item object has width and height properties. The maximum value allowed for the width or

Each height of a page item is 16348 points.

Art item bounds

Every page item object has three properties that use fixed rectangles to describe the object’s overall extent:

X The geometric bounds of a page item are the rectangular dimensions of the object’s bounding box,

excluding stroke width.

X The visible bounds of a page item are the dimensions of the object, including any stroke widths.

X The control bounds define the rectangular dimensions of the object, including in and out control

points.

The following figure illustrates these properties, using JavaScript naming conventions.

ruler origin

page origin property of a document object defines the bottom-left

CHAPTER 3: Scripting Illustrator Paths and shapes 32

Paths and shapes

Paths are represented in the Illustrator DOM by the path item object. Path items include all artwork that contains paths, such as rectangles, ellipses, and polygons, as well as freeform paths.

A freeform path consists of a series of path points. A path point can be specified in two ways:

X As an array of x and y page coordinates.

X As a path point object, which defines an anchor point and two direction points or handles that define

the path segment’s curve:

For details, samples, and information on creating shapes, see the chapter for your scripting language.

User-interaction levels

When user feedback is required, an application typically presents a dialog. This is called user interaction. It is useful and expected when you are directly interacting with the application; however, when a script is interacting with an application, a dialog brings the execution of the script to a halt until the dialog is dismissed. This can be a serious problem in an automation environment, where there is no one present to deal with dialogs.

The

application object contains a user interaction level property that allows you to control the level

of interaction allowed during script execution. You can suppress interaction in an automation environment or allow some interaction where scripts are being used in a more interactive fashion.

AppleScript

Using AppleScript, it is possible to send commands from one machine to another, so additional types of interaction are possible. In AppleScript:, there are four possible values for the property:

Property Value Result

user interaction level

never interact

interact with self

interact with local

interact with all

No interaction is allowed.

Interact only with scripts executed from the Scripts menu (File > Scripts).

Interact with scripts executed on the local machine (including self).

Interact with all scripts.

CHAPTER 3: Scripting Illustrator Printing Illustrator documents 33

The four values allow you to control interaction based on the source of the script commands. For example, if the application is acting as a server for remote users, it would be difficult for a remote user to dismiss a dialog, but it would be no problem for someone sitting in front of the machine. In this case, an interaction level of interact with local would prevent dialogs from halting remote scripts but would allow dialogs to be presented for local scripts.

JavaScript

In JavaScript, there are two possible values for the app.userInteractionLevel property:

Property Value Result

DISPLAYALERTS

DONTDISPLAYALERTS

Interaction is allowed.

No interaction is allowed.

VBScript

In VBScript, there are two possible values for the UserInteractionLevel property of the Application object:

Property Value Result

aiDisplayAlerts

aiDontDisplayAlerts

Interaction is allowed.

No interaction is allowed.

Printing Illustrator documents

Using the print options scripting feature, you can capture and automate parts of your print workflow. Scripting exposes the full capabilities of Illustrator printing, some of which may not be accessible through the application’s user interface.

Illustrator supports at most one print session at a time, because of limits in the current printing architecture.

The

document object’s print command or method takes one optional parameter, which allows you to

specify a

The and color-management options. The

print options object.

print options object allows you to define print settings like PPD, PostScript options, paper options,

print options object also has a print preset property, which

allows you to specify a preset to define your print job.

When defining the properties of a presets, and other items are available by using the as the

printer list, PPD file list, and print presets list properties.

print options object, you can find out which printers, PPDs, print

application object’s read-only “list” properties, such

Scripting with AppleScript

This chapter uses script examples and explanations to help you to become familiar with Illustrator scripting using AppleScript.

For more information

Several extended sample scripts are in the :Scripting:Sample Scripts folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory.

For information about individual classes, objects, properties, commands, and parameters, as well as script samples that demonstrate how to use many of these items, see Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: AppleScript, in the also can view the Illustrator CS5 dictionary from the Script Editor application;see “

object model” on page 9.

If you do not understand the concepts and terms used in this chapter, read Adobe Introduction to Scripting.

:Scripting:Documentation folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory. You

Your first Illustrator script

Viewing the AppleScript

The traditional first project in any programming language is displaying the message “Hello World!” In this example, you create a new Illustrator document, then add a text frame containing this message. Follow these steps:

1. Open Script Editor.

In a default Mac OS installation, Script Editor is in cannot find the Script Editor application, you must reinstall it from your Mac OS system CD.

2. Enter the following script.

--Send the following commands to Illustrator tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

--Create a new document set docRef to make new document

--Create a new text frame with the string "Hello World" set textRef to make new text frame in docRef ? with properties {contents: "Hello World!", position:{200, 200}} end tell

3. In the Script Editor toolbar, click Run.

IP: To add the script to the Illustrator Scripts menu (File > Scripts), save the script in the Scripts folder. The

script will appear on the menu the next time you start Illustrator. For details, see “

Scripts menu” on page 10.

Applications:AppleScript:Script Editor. If you

Installing scripts in the

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Object references 35

Adding features to “Hello World”

Next, we create a new script that makes changes to the Illustrator document you created with your first script. Our second script demonstrates how to:

X Get the active document.

X Get the width of the active document.

X Resize the text frame to match the document’s width.

If you already closed the Illustrator document, run your first script again to create a new document.

Follow these steps:

1. In Script Editor, choose File > New to create a new script.

2. Enter the following code:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

-- current document is always the active document

set docRef to the current document set docWidth to the width of docRef

-- resize the text frame to match the page width

set width of text frame 1 of docRef to docWidth

-- alternatively, one can reference the item directly, as follows:

set width of text frame 1 of current document to docWidth

end tell

3. Run the script.

Object references

In AppleScript, Illustrator returns object references by index position or name. For example, this is a reference to the first path in layer 2:

path item 1 of layer 2 of document 1

An object’s index position may change when other objects are created or deleted. For example, when a new path item is created on This new object displaces the original path item, forcing the original to index position 2; therefore, any references made to applying index numbers assures that lowest index number refers to the object that was worked on most recently.

Consider the following sample script:

-- Make 2 new objects and try to select both

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set newDocument to make new document set rectPath to make new rectangle in newDocument set starPath to make new star in newDocument set selection of newDocument to {rectPath, starPath}

end tell

layer 2, the new path item becomes path item 1 of layer 2 of document 1.

path item 1 of layer 2 of document 1 refer to the new object. This method of

This script does not select both the rectangle and the star, as intended; instead, it selects only the star. Try running the script with the Event Log window open, to observe the references returned from Illustrator for

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Object references 36

each consecutive make command. (Choose Event Log at the bottom of the Script Editor window.) Notice that both commands return the same object reference:

path item 1 of layer 1 of document 1; therefore,

the last line resolves to:

set selection of document 1 to {path item 1 of layer 1 of document 1, ?

path item 1 of layer 1 of document 1}

A better approach is to reference the objects by name:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set newDocument to make new document make new rectangle in newDocument with properties {name:"rectangle"} make new star in newDocument with properties {name:"star"} set selection of newDocument to ?

{path item "rectangle" of newDocument, ? path item "star" of newDocument}

end tell

This example illustrates the need to uniquely identify objects in AppleScript scripts. We recommend that you assign names or variables to objects you need to access at a later time, as there is no guarantee you are accessing the objects you expect when accessing them by index.

Obtaining objects from documents and layers

This script references an object as part of a document:

-- Get reference for first page item of document 1

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set pageItemRef to page item 1 of document 1

end tell

In the following script, the pageItemRef variable does not necessarily refer to the same object as in the previous script, because this script includes a reference to a layer:

-- Get reference for first page item of layer 1 of document 1

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set pageItemRef to page item 1 of layer 1 of document 1

end tell

Creating new objects

To create a new object in AppleScript, use the make command.

Working with selections

When the user makes a selection in a document, the selected objects are stored in the document’s

selection property. To access all selected objects in the active document:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set myDoc to current document set selectedObjects to selection of myDoc

end tell

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Working with text frames 37

Depending on what is selected, the selection property value can be an array of any type of art objects. To get or manipulate the properties of the selected art items, you must retrieve the individual items in the array. To find out an object’s type, use the

class property.

The following sample gets the first object in the array, then displays the object’s type:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set myDoc to current document set selectedObjects to selection of myDoc set topObject to item 1 of selectedObjects display dialog (class of topObject)

end tell

The first object in a selection array is the selected object that was last added to the page, not the last object selected.

Selecting artwork objects

To select an art object, the object’s selected property.

Working with text frames

To create a text frame of a specific type in AppleScript, use the kind property of the text frame object:

set myRect to make new rectangle in current document with properties ? {position:{100, 700}, height:100, width:100} set myAreaText to make new text frame in current document with properties ? {kind:point text,contents:"Text Frame 1"}

Threaded frames

As in the Illustrator application, you can thread area text frames or path text frames.

To thread existing text frames, use the

When copying the following script to your script editor, place the value of the line. The long-line character (

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

make new document make new rectangle in current document with properties ?

{position:{100, 500}, height:100, width:100}

make new text frame in current document with properties ?

{kind:area text, text path:the result, name:"tf1", ? contents:"This is two text frames linked together as one story, with? text flowing from the first to the last. First frame content. "}

make new rectangle in current document with properties ?

{position:{300, 700}, height:100, width:100} make new text frame in current document with properties ? {kind:area text, text path:the result, name:"tf2", ?

contents:"Second frame content." }

--use the next frame property to thread the frames

set next frame of text frame "tf1" of current document to ?

text frame "tf2" of current document redraw

end tell

next frame or previous frame property of the text frame object.

contents property on one

¬) is not valid within a string value.

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Creating paths and shapes 38

Threaded frames make one story object

Threaded frames make a single story object. To observe this, run the following AppleScript after running the script in “

display dialog ("There are " & (count(text frames of current document)) & " text frames.") display dialog("There are " & (count(stories of current document)) & " stories.")

Threaded frames” on page 37.

Creating paths and shapes

This section explains how to create items that contain paths.

Paths

To create line or a freeform path, specify a series of path points, as a series of x-y coordinates or path point objects.

Using x-y coordinates limits the path to straight segments. To created a curved path, you must create

path point objects. A path can comprise a combination of page coordinates and path point objects.

Specifying a series of x-y coordinates

To specify a path using page-coordinate pairs, use the entire path property of the path items object. The following script specifies three pairs of x-y coordinates, to create a path with three points:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" set docRef to make new document

-- set stroked to true so we can see the path set lineRef to make new path item in docRef with properties {stroked:true} set entire path of lineRef to {{220, 475},{200, 300},{375, 300}} end tell

Using path point objects

To create a path point object, you must define three values for the point.

X A fixed anchor point, which is the point on the path.

X A pair of direction points—left direction and right direction—which allow you to control the

path segment’s curve.

You define each property as an array of page coordinates in the format [x, y]:

X If all three properties of a path point object have the same coordinates, and the properties of the next

path point in the line are equal to each other, you create a straight-line segment.

X If two or more properties in a path point object have different values, the segment connected to the

point is curved.

To create a path or add points to an existing path using then add the path points as child objects in the

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" set docRef to make new document

path item:

path point objects, create a path item object,

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Creating paths and shapes 39

-- set stroked to true so we can see the path set lineRef to make new path item in docRef with properties {stroked:true}

--giving the direction points the same value as the

--anchor point creates a straight line segment

set newPoint to make new path point of lineRef with properties ?

{anchor:{220, 475},left direction:{220, 475},right direction:{220, 475}, point type:corner}

set newPoint2 to make new path point of lineRef with properties ?

{anchor:{375, 300},left direction:{375, 300},right direction:{375, 300}, point type:corner}

--giving the direction points the different values

--creates a curve

set newPoint3 to make new path point of lineRef with properties ?

{anchor:{220, 300},left direction:{180, 260},right direction:{240, 320}, point type:corner}

end tell

Combining path point types

The following script sample creates a path with three points, by combining the entire path property with a

path point object:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" set docRef to make new document

-- set stroked to true so we can see the path set lineRef to make new path item in docRef with properties {stroked:true} set entire path of lineRef to {{220, 475},{375, 300}} set newPoint to make new path point of lineRef with properties ?

end tell

Shapes

To create a shape, you use the object that corresponds to the shape’s name (like ellipse, rectangle, or

polygon), and use the object’s properties to specify the shape’s position, size, and other information like

the number of sides in a polygon.

Remember:

X The scripting engine processes all measurements and page coordinates as points. For details, see

X x and y coordinates are measured from the bottom-left corner of the document, as indicated in the

{anchor:{220, 300},left direction:{180, 260},right direction:{240, 320}, point type:corner}

“

Measurement units” on page 30.

Info panel in the Illustrator application. For details, see “

Page-item positioning and dimensions” on

page 30.

Write-once access

Properties for path-item shapes use the “write-once” access status, which indicates that the property is writeable only when the object is created. For existing path-item objects, the properties are read-only properties whose values cannot be changed.

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Working with the perspective grid 40

Creating a rectangle

Consider the following sample:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" set docRef to make new document set rectRef to make new rectangle in docRef with properties ?

{bounds:{288, 360, 72, 144}}

end tell

The sample creates a rectangle with these properties:

X The top-right corner of the of the rectangle is inset 4 inches (288 points) from the bottom of the page

and 5 inches (360 points) from the left edge of the page.

X The lower-left corner of the rectangle is inset 1 inch (72 points) from the left edge of the page and

2 inches (144 points) from the bottom of the page.

Creating a polygon

Consider the following sample:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator" set docRef to make new document set pathRef to make new polygon in docRef with properties ? {center point:{144, 288},sides:7,radius:72.0} end tell

The sample creates a polygon with these properties:

X The center point of the object is inset is 2 inches (144 points) on the horizontal axis and 4 inches

(288 points) on the vertical axis.

X The polygon has 7 sides.

X The length of the radius from the center point to each corner is 1 inch (72 points).

Working with the perspective grid

The Perspective Grid is a new feature in Illustrator CS5 that enables you to create and manipulate art in a spatial environment using established laws of perspective. Enable Perspective Grid using the View > Perspective Grid menu or the perspective tools in the toolbar.

The SDK provides an API for working with the perspective grid programmatically, and your scripts have some access to this API. A script can:

X Set a the default grid parameters using preset values.

X Show or hide the grid.

X Set the active plane.

X Draw an object in perspective on the active plane.

X Bring an object into perspective.

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Working with the perspective grid 41

Use perspective presets

Illustrator provides default grid-parameter presets for one-point, two-point, and three-point perspectives. The presets are named

The script shows how to select the two-point perspective preset programmatically:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

--Create a new document set docRef to make new document tell docRef

--Select the default two-point perspective preset

select perspective preset perspective preset "[2P-Normal View]" end tell

end tell

You can create new perspective presets, export presets to files, and import presets from files. These scripts shows how to export and import presets:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set docRef to make new document set filePath to "Macintosh HD:scripting:PGPresetsExported" export perspective grid preset of docRef to file filePath

end tell

"[1P-NormalView]", "[2P-NormalView]", and "[3P-NormalView]".

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

set docRef to make new document set filePath to "Macintosh HD:scripting:PGPresets" import perspective grid preset of docRef from file filePath

end tell

Show or hide the grid

This script shows or hides the Perspective Grid programmatically:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

--Create a new document set docRef to make new document tell docRef

--Display the perspective grid defined in the document

show perspective grid

--Hide the perspective grid defined in the document

hide perspective grid end tell

end tell

Set the active plane

The perspective grid plane types are:

Left plane

Right plane

perspective grid plane leftplane

perspective grid plane rightplane

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Working with the perspective grid 42

Floor plane

Invalid plane

perspective grid plane floorplane

perspective grid plane noplane

For a one-point perspective grid, only the left and floor plane are valid.

This script sets the active perspective plane to the left plane:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

--Create a new document set docRef to make new document tell docRef

--Set the active plane to the left plane

set perspective active plane perspective grid plane leftplane end tell

end tell

Draw on a perspective grid

When the Perspective Grid is on, drawing methods allow you to draw or operate on objects in perspective. This script creates a new document, shows a two-point perspective grid, and draws art objects on the left plane:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

--Create a new document set docRef to make new document tell docRef

--Select the default two-point perspective preset

select perspective preset perspective preset "[2P-Normal View]"

--Display the perspective grid defined in the document

show perspective grid

--Check if active plane is set to left, otherwise set it to left

if (get perspective active plane) is not leftplane then

set perspective active plane perspective grid plane leftplane

end if

--Draw rectangle in perspective, then resize to 200% and move

set rectRef to make new rectangle with properties {bounds:{0, 0, 30, 30},

reversed:false}

scale rectRef horizontal scale 200 vertical scale 200 about top left with

transforming objects

translate rectRef delta x -420 delta y 480

--Draw ellipse in perspective

set ellipseRef to make new ellipse with properties {bounds:{60, -60, 90, -30},

reversed:false, inscribed:true}

--Draw rounded rectangle in perspective

set rrectRef to make new rounded rectangle with properties {bounds:{90, -90, 30,

30}, horizontal radius:10, vertical radius:10, reversed:false}

--Draw polygon in perspective

set polyRef to make new polygon with properties {center point:{105, 105},

radius:15, sides:7, reversed:false}

--Draw star in perspective

CHAPTER 4: Scripting with AppleScript Working with the perspective grid 43

set starRef to make new star with properties {center point:{135, 135},

radius:15, inner radius:10, point count:6, reversed:false}

--Draw path in perspective

set newPath to make new path item with properties {entire path:{{anchor:{0, 0}},

{anchor:{60, 0}}, {anchor:{30, 45}}, {anchor:{90, 110}}}}

end tell

Bring objects into perspective

If an art object is not in perspective, use the bringInPerspective() method to bring it into perspective and place it on a plane.

This script creates a new document, draws an art object, and brings it into perspective on a three-point perspective grid:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"

--Create a new document set docRef to make new document tell docRef

--Draw star

set starRef to make new star with properties {center point:{135, 135},

radius:15, inner radius:10, point count:6, reversed:false}

--Select the default three-point perspective preset

select perspective preset perspective preset "[3P-Normal View]"

--Display the perspective grid defined in the document

show perspective grid

--Check if active plane is set to left, otherwise set it to left

if (get perspective active plane) is not leftplane then

end if

--Bring star to floor plane

bring in perspective starRef position x 100 position y 100 perspective grid plane

floorplane

end tell

set perspective active plane perspective grid plane leftplane

Scripting with JavaScript

This chapter uses script examples and explanations to help you to become familiar with Illustrator scripting using JavaScript.

For more information

Several extended sample scripts are in the /Scripting/Sample Scripts folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory.

For information about individual classes, objects, properties, methods, and parameters, as well as script samples that demonstrate how to use many of these items, see Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: JavaScript, in the can use the Illustrator dictionary, which you access from the Object Model Viewer in the ESTK. For information on using the ExtendScript Toolkit and the Object Model Viewer, see “

object model” on page 9 or JavaScript Tools Guide.

If you do not understand the concepts and terms used in this chapter, read Adobe Introduction to Scripting.

/Scripting/Documentation folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory. You also

Your first Illustrator script

Viewing the JavaScript

1. Using any text editor (including Adobe

//Hello World! var myDocument = app.documents.add(); //Create a new text frame and assign it to the variable "myTextFrame" var myTextFrame = myDocument.textFrames.add(); // Set the contents and position of the text frame myTextFrame.position = [200,200]; myTextFrame.contents = "Hello World!"

For information on locating the ExtendScript Toolkit, see “Viewing the JavaScript object model” on

page 9.

2. To test the script, do either of the following:

X If you are using the ESTK, select Adobe Illustrator CS5 from the drop-down list in the upper-left corner,

select Yes to start Illustrator, then choose Debug > Run in the ESTK to run the script.

X If you are using a different text editor than the ESTK, save the file as text-only in a folder of your choice,

using the file extension and navigate to and run your script file.

.jsx, then start Illustrator. In Illustrator, choose File > Scripts > Other Scripts,

InDesign® or the ESTK), enter the following text:

IP: To add the script to the Illustrator Scripts menu (File > Scripts), save the script in the Scripts folder. The

script will appear on the menu the next time you start Illustrator. For details, see “

Scripts menu” on page 10.

Installing scripts in the

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Working with methods in JavaScript 45

Adding features to “Hello World”

Next, we create a new script that makes changes to the Illustrator document you created with your first script. Our second script demonstrates how to:

X Get the active document.

X Get the width of the active document.

X Resize the text frame to match the document’s width.

If you already closed the Illustrator document, run your first script again to create a new document, before proceeding with this exercise.

Follow these steps:

1. Choose File > New in your text editor, to create a new script.

2. Enter the following code:

var docRef = app.activeDocument; var docWidth = docRef.width

var frameRef = docRef.textFrames[0]

frameRef.width = docWidth

3. Run the script.

Working with methods in JavaScript

When you work with methods that have multiple parameters, you may omit optional parameters at the end of the parameter list, but you may not omit parameters in the middle of the list. If you do not want to specify a particular parameter in the middle of the list, you must insert the value parameter’s default value. For example, the following definition describes the object.

rotate

(angle

[,changePositions] [,changeFillPatterns] [,changeFillGradients] [,changeStrokePattern] [,rotateAbout])

In the definition, taken from Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: JavaScript, optional parameters are enclosed in square brackets (

To rotate the object 30 degrees and change the statement:

[]).

fillGradients, you would use the following script

undefined to use the

rotate() method for an art

myObject.rotate(30, undefined, undefined, true);

You n ee d t o sp ec if y undefined for the changePositions and changeFillPatterns parameters. You do not have to specify anything for the two optional parameters following

changeFillGradients, since they

are at the end of the parameter list.

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Accessing and referencing objects 46

Accessing and referencing objects

When you write a script, you must first decide which file, or document, the script should act on. Through the

application object, the script can create a new document, open an existing document, or act on a

document that is already open.

The script can create new objects in the document, operate on objects that the user selected, or operate on objects in one of the object collections. The following sections illustrate various techniques for accessing, referencing, and manipulating Illustrator objects.

Referencing the application object

To obtain a reference to a specific object, you need to navigate the containment hierarchy. Because all JavaScript scripts are executed from within the Illustrator application, however, a specific reference to the

application object is not required. For example, to assign the active document in Illustrator to the

variable object, as follows:

var frontMostDocument = activeDocument;

It is permissible to use the application object in a reference. To reference the application object, use the

frontMostDocument, you could reference the activeDocument property of the application

app global variable. The following two statements appear identical to the JavaScript engine:

var frontMostDocument = activeDocument;

var frontMostDocument = app.activeDocument;

Accessing objects in collections

All open documents, as well as the objects in a document, are collected into collection objects for the object type. A collection object contains an array of the objects that you can access by index or name. The collection object takes the plural form of the object name. For example, the collection object for the

document object is documents.

The following script sample gets all gets all graphic styles available to the active document:

var myStyles = app.activeDocument.graphicStyles;

All numeric collection references in JavaScript are zero-based: the first object in the collection has the index [0].

As a rule, JavaScript index numbers do not shift when you add an object to a collection. There is one exception:

To access the first style in a

documents[0] is always the active or frontmost document.

graphic styles collection, you can use the variable declared in the previous

script sample, or you can use the containment hierarchy to refer to the collection:

graphic style objects in the graphic styles collection; that is, it

X Using the myStyles variable:

var firstStyle = myStyles[0];

X Using the containment hierarchy:

var firstStyle = app.activeDocument.graphicStyles[0];

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Accessing and referencing objects 47

The following statements assign the name of the first graphic style in the collection to a variable. You can use these statements interchangeably.

var styleName = myStyles[0].name

var styleName = firstStyle.name

var styleName = app.activeDocument.graphicStyles[0].name

To get the total number of objects in a collection, use the length property:

alert ( myStyles.length );

The index of the last graphic style in the collection is myStyles.length-1 (-1 because the collection starts the index count at 0 and the

var lastStyle = myStyles[ myStyles.length - 1 ];

length property counts from 1):

Note that an expression representing the index value is enclosed in square brackets ([]) as well as quotes.

If you know the name of an object, you can access the object in the collections using the name surrounded by square brackets; for example:

var getStyle = myStyles[?Ice Type?];

Each element in the collection is an object of the desired type, and you can access its properties through the collection. For example, to get an object’s name, use the

var styleName = app.activeDocument.graphicStyles[0].name;

To apply lastStyle to the first pageItem in the document, use its applyTo() method:

lastStyle.applyTo( app.activeDocument.pageItems[0] );

Creating new objects

You can use a script to create new objects. To create objects that are available from collection objects, or containers, use the container object’s

var myDoc = app.documents.add() var myLayer = myDoc.layers.add()

Some object types are not available from containers. To create an object of this type, define a variable, then use the create a new

var myColor = new CMYKColor()

new operator with an object constructor to assign an object as the value. For example, to

CMYKColor object using the variable name myColor:

name property:

add() method:

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Working with text frames 48

Working with selections

When the user makes a selection in a document, the selected objects are stored in the document’s

selection property. To access all selected objects in the active document:

var selectedObjects = app.activeDocument.selection;

The selection property value can be an array of any type of art objects, depending on what types of objects are selected. To get or manipulate the properties of the selected art items, you must retrieve the individual items in the array. To find out an object’s type, use the

The following sample gets the first object in the array, then displays the object’s type:

var topObject = app.activeDocument.selection[0]; alert(topObject.typename)

The first object in a selection array is the selected object that was last added to the page, not the last object selected.

Selecting artwork objects

To select an art object, use the object’s selected property.

typename property.

Working with text frames

To create a text frame of a specific type in JavaScript, use the textFrames method whose name corresponds to the text frame’s type; for example:

var rectRef = docRef.pathItems.rectangle(700, 50, 100, 100); //use the areaText method to create the text frame var areaTextRef = docRef.textFrames.areaText(rectRef);

Threaded frames

As in the Illustrator application, you can thread area text frames or path text frames.

To thread existing text frames, use the

When copying the following script to the ESTK, place the value of the

var myDoc = documents.add(); var myPathItem1 = myDoc.pathItems.rectangle(244, 64, 82, 76); var myTextFrame1 = myDoc.textFrames.areaText(myPathItem1); var myPathItem2 = myDoc.pathItems.rectangle(144, 144, 42, 116); var myTextFrame2 = myDoc.textFrames.areaText(myPathItem2);

// use the nextFrame property to thread the text frames myTextFrame1.nextFrame = myTextFrame2; var sText = "This is two text frames linked together as one story, with text flowing from the first to the last. This is two text frames linked together as one story, with text flowing from the first to the last. This is two text frames linked together as one story. "; myTextFrame1.contents = sText; redraw();

nextFrame or previousFrame property of the text frame object.

contents property on one line.

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Creating paths and shapes 49

Threaded frames make a single story object

Threaded frames make a single story object. To observe this, run the following JavaScript after running the script in “

var myDoc = app.activeDocument alert("There are " + myDoc.textFrames.length + " text frames.") alert("There are " + myDoc.stories.length + " stories.")

Threaded frames” on page 48.

Creating paths and shapes

This section explains how to create items that contain paths.

Paths

To create a freeform path, specify a series of path points, as a series of x-y coordinates or pathPoint objects.

Using x-y coordinates limits the path to straight segments. To created a curved path, you must create

pathPoint objects. Your path can comprise a combination of page coordinates and pathPoint objects.

Specifying a series of x-y coordinates

To specify a path using page coordinate pairs, use the setEntirePath() method of the pathItems object. The following script specifies three pairs of x-y coordinates, to create a path with three points:

var myDoc = app.activeDocument; var myLine = myDoc.pathItems.add(); //set stroked to true so we can see the path myLine.stroked = true; myLine.setEntirePath([[220, 475], [375, 300], [200, 300]]);

Using pathPoint objects

When you create a pathPoint object, you define three values for the point:

X A fixed anchor point, which is the point on the path.

X A pair of direction points—left direction and right direction—which allow you to control the

path segment’s curve.

You define each property as an array of page coordinates in the format [x, y].

X If all three properties of a pathPoint object have the same coordinates, and the properties of the next

pathPoint in the line are equal to each other, you create a straight-line segment.

X If two or more properties in a pathPoint object hold different values, the segment connected to the

point is curved.

To create a path or add points to an existing path using add the path points as child objects in the

var myDoc = app.activeDocument; var myLine = myDoc.pathItems.add();

pathItem:

pathPoint objects, create a pathItem object, then

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Creating paths and shapes 50

//set stroked to true so we can see the path myLine.stroked = true;

var newPoint = myLine.pathPoints.add();

newPoint.anchor = [220, 475]; //giving the direction points the same value as the //anchor point creates a straight line segment newPoint.leftDirection = newPoint.anchor; newPoint.rightDirection = newPoint.anchor; newPoint.pointType = PointType.CORNER;

var newPoint1 = myLine.pathPoints.add();

newPoint1.anchor = [375, 300]; newPoint1.leftDirection = newPoint1.anchor; newPoint1.rightDirection = newPoint1.anchor; newPoint1.pointType = PointType.CORNER;

var newPoint2 = myLine.pathPoints.add();

newPoint2.anchor = [220, 300]; //giving the direction points different values //than the anchor point creates a curve newPoint2.leftDirection =[180, 260]; newPoint2.rightDirection = [240, 320]; newPoint2.pointType = PointType.CORNER;

Combining path point types

The following script sample creates a path with three points:

var myDoc = app.activeDocument; var myLine = myDoc.pathItems.add();

// Append another point to the line var newPoint = myDoc.myLine.pathPoints.add();

Shapes

To create a shape, use the pathItems method that corresponds to the shape’s name (like ellipse,

rectangle, or polygon), and use the parameters to specify shape’s position, size, and other information

like the number of sides in a polygon.

Remember:

X All measurements and page coordinates are processed as points by the scripting engine. For details,

myLine.stroked = true; myLine.setEntirePath( [[220, 475], [375, 300]]);

newPoint.anchor = [220, 300]; newPoint.leftDirection = newPoint.anchor; newPoint.rightDirection = newPoint.anchor; newPoint.pointType = PointType.CORNER;

see “

Measurement units” on page 30.

X x and y coordinates are measured from the bottom-left corner of the document, as indicated in the

Info panel in the Illustrator application. For details, see “

Page-item positioning and dimensions” on

page 30.

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Working with the perspective grid 51

Creating a rectangle

Consider the following sample

var myDocument = app.documents.add() var artLayer = myDocument.layers.add() var rect = artLayer.pathItems.rectangle( 144, 144, 72, 216 );

The sample uses the pathItems object’s rectangle() method to create a rectangle with these properties:

X The top of the rectangle is 2 inches (144 points) from the bottom edge of the page.

X The left edge is 2 inches (144 points) from the left edge of the page.

X The rectangle is 1 inch (72 points) wide and 3 inches (216 points) long.

Creating a polygon

Consider the following sample:

var myDocument = app.documents.add() var artLayer = myDocument.layers.add() var poly = artLayer.pathItems.polygon( 144, 288, 72.0, 7 );

The sample uses the polygon() method to create a polygon with these properties:

X The center point of the object is inset is 2 inches (144 points) on the horizontal axis and 4 inches (288

points) on the vertical axis.

X The length of the radius from the center point to each corner is 1 inch (72 points).

X The polygon has 7 sides.

Working with the perspective grid

The Perspective Grid is a new feature in Illustrator CS5 that enables you to create and manipulate art in a spatial environment using established laws of perspective. Enable the Perspective Grid using the View > Perspective Grid menu or the perspective tools in the toolbar.

The SDK provides an API for working with the perspective grid programmatically, and your scripts have some access to this API. A script can:

X Set a the default grid parameters using preset values.

X Show or hide the grid.

X Set the active plane.

X Draw an object in perspective on the active plane.

X Bring an object into perspective.

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Working with the perspective grid 52

Use perspective presets

Illustrator provides default grid-parameter presets for one-point, two-point, and three-point perspectives. The presets are named

This script shows how to select a preset programmatically:

//Set the default one-point perspective preset app.activeDocument.selectPerspectivePreset("[1P-Normal View]");

//Set the default two-point perspective preset app.activeDocument.selectPerspectivePreset("[2P-Normal View]");

//Set the default three-point perspective preset app.activeDocument.selectPerspectivePreset("[3P-Normal View]");

You can create new perspective presets, export presets to files, and import presets from files. These scripts shows how to export and import presets:

//Create a new document var mydoc = app.documents.add(); //Export perspective presets to a file var exportPresetFile = new File("C:/scripting/PGPresetsExported") mydoc.exportPerspectiveGridPreset(exportPresetFile);

"[1P-NormalView]", "[2P-NormalView]", and "[3P-NormalView]".

//Create a new document var mydoc = app.documents.add(); //Import perspective presets from a file var importPresetFile = new File("C:/scripting/PGPresets") mydoc.importPerspectiveGridPreset(importPresetFile);

Show or hide the grid

This script shows or hides the Perspective Grid programmatically:

//Show the Perspective Grid defined in the document app.activeDocument.showPerspectiveGrid();

//Hide the Perspective Grid defined in the document mydoc.hidePerspectiveGrid();

Set the active plane

The perspective grid plane types are:

Left plane

Right plane

PerspectiveGridPlaneType.LEFTPLANE

PerspectiveGridPlaneType.RIGHTPLANE

Floor plane

Invalid plane

PerspectiveGridPlaneType.FLOORPLANE

PerspectiveGridPlaneType.NOPLANE

For a one-point perspective grid, only the left and floor plane are valid.

This script sets the active perspective plane:

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Working with the perspective grid 53

//Set left plane as the active plane app.activeDocument.setPerspectiveActivePlane(PerspectiveGridPlaneType.LEFTPLANE);

//Set right plane as the active plane app.activeDocument.setPerspectiveActivePlane(PerspectiveGridPlaneType.RIGHTPLANE);

//Set floor plane as the active plane app.activeDocument.setPerspectiveActivePlane(PerspectiveGridPlaneType.FLOORPLANE);

Draw on a perspective grid

//Create a new document var mydoc = app.documents.add();

//Select the default two-point perspective preset mydoc.selectPerspectivePreset("[2P-Normal View]");

//Display the perspective grid defined in the document mydoc.showPerspectiveGrid();

//Check if active plane is set to left; if not, set it to left if (mydoc.getPerspectiveActivePlane() != PerspectiveGridPlaneType.LEFTPLANE) { mydoc.setPerspectiveActivePlane(PerspectiveGridPlaneType.LEFTPLANE); }

//Draw rectangle in perspective, then resize to 200% and move var myrect = mydoc.pathItems.rectangle(30, -30, 30, 30, false); myrect.resize(200, 200, true, false, false, false, 100, Transformation.TOPLEFT); myrect.translate (-420, 480);

//Draw ellipse in perspective var myellipse = mydoc.pathItems.ellipse(60, -60, 30, 30, false, true);

//Draw rounded rectangle in perspective var myrrect = mydoc.pathItems.roundedRectangle(90, -90, 30, 30, 10, 10, false);

//Draw polygon in perspective var mypoly = mydoc.pathItems.polygon(-105, 105, 15, 7, false);

//Draw star in perspective var mystar = mydoc.pathItems.star(-135, 135, 15, 10, 6, false);

//Draw path in perspective var newPath = mydoc.pathItems.add(); var lineList = new Array(4); lineList[0] = new Array(0,0); lineList[1] = new Array(60,0); lineList[2] = new Array(30,45); lineList[3] = new Array(90,110); newPath.setEntirePath(lineList);

CHAPTER 5: Scripting with JavaScript Working with the perspective grid 54

Bring objects into perspective

If an art object is not in perspective, use the bringInPerspective() method to bring it into perspective and place it on a plane.

This script creates a new document, draws art objects, and brings them into perspective on a three-point perspective grid:

ï»¿//Create a new document var mydoc = app.documents.add();

//Draw ellipse var myellipse = mydoc.pathItems.ellipse(60, -60, 30, 30, false, true);

//Draw polygon var mypoly = mydoc.pathItems.polygon(-105, 105, 15, 7, false);

//Draw star var mystar = mydoc.pathItems.star(-135, 135, 15, 10, 6, false);

//Select the default three-point perspective preset mydoc.selectPerspectivePreset("[3P-Normal View]");

//Display the perspective grid defined in the document mydoc.showPerspectiveGrid();

//Bring the ellipse to the active plane (left plane) myellipse.bringInPerspective(-100,-100, PerspectiveGridPlaneType.LEFTPLANE);

//Bring the polygon to the right plane mypoly.bringInPerspective(100,-100,PerspectiveGridPlaneType.RIGHTPLANE);

//Bring the star to the floor plane mystar.bringInPerspective(100,100,PerspectiveGridPlaneType.FLOORPLANE);

Scripting with VBScript

This chapter uses script examples and explanations to help you to become familiar with Illustrator scripting using VBScript.

For more information

Several extended sample scripts are in the /Scripting/Sample Scripts folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory.

For information about individual classes, objects, properties, methods, and parameters, as well as script samples that demonstrate how to use many of these items, see Adobe Illustrator CS Scripting Reference: VBScript, in the can view the Illustrator CS5 type library from most VBScript editors or any Microsoft Office application; see

“

Viewing the VBScript object model” on page 10.

If you do not understand the concepts and terms used in this chapter, read Adobe Introduction to Scripting.

/Scripting/Documentation folder in your Illustrator CS5 installation directory. You also

Your first Illustrator script

The traditional first project in any programming language is displaying the message “Hello World!” Follow these steps:

1. Start any text editor (for example, Notepad).

2. Type the following code:

Rem Hello World Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application") Rem Create a new document and assign it to a variable Set documentRef = appRef.Documents.Add Rem Create a new text frame item and assign it to a variable Set sampleText = documentRef.TextFrames.Add Rem Set the contents and position of the TextFrame sampleText.Position = Array(200, 200) sampleText.Contents = "Hello World!"

3. Save the file as text-only in a folder of your choice, using the file extension .vbs.

4. To test the script, do one of the following:

X Double-click the file.

X Start Illustrator, choose File > Scripts > Other Scripts, and navigate to and run your script file.

IP: To add the script to the Illustrator Scripts menu (File > Scripts), save the script in the Scripts folder. The

script will appear on the menu the next time you start Illustrator. For details, see “

Scripts menu” on page 10. In general, when you launch a VBScript script from the Scripts menu, any

msgBox dialogs will not display correctly.

Installing scripts in the

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Accessing and referencing objects 56

Adding features to “Hello World”

Next, we create a new script that makes changes to the Illustrator document you created with your first script. The second script demonstrates how to:

X Get the active document.

X Get the width of the active document.

X Resize the text frame item to match the document’s width.

If you closed the Illustrator document without saving it, run your first script again to create a new document.

Follow these steps:

1. Copy the following script into your text editor, and save the file.

Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application") 'Get the active document Set documentRef = appRef.ActiveDocument Set sampleText = documentRef.TextFrames(1) ' Resize the TextFrame item to match the document width sampleText.Width = documentRef.Width sampleText.Left = 0

2. Run the script.

Accessing and referencing objects

When you write a script, you must first decide which file, or Document, the script should act on. Through the

Application object, the script can create a new document, open an existing document, or act on a

document that is already open.

The script can create new objects in the document, operate on objects that the user selected, or operate on objects in one of the object collections. The following sections illustrate techniques for accessing, referencing, and manipulating Illustrator objects.

Obtaining objects from collections

Generally, to obtain a reference to a specific object, you can navigate the containment hierarchy. For example, to use the active document:

Set myPath = appRef.ActiveDocument.Layers(2).PathItems(1)

The following scripts demonstrate how to reference an object as part of a document:

Set documentRef = appRef.ActiveDocument

myPath variable to store a reference to the first PathItem in the second layer of the

Set pageItemRef = documentRef.PageItems(1)

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Accessing and referencing objects 57

In the script below, the variable pageItemRef will not necessarily refer to the same object as the above script, since this script includes a reference to a layer:

Set documentRef = appRef.ActiveDocument Set pageItemRef = documentRef.Layers(1).PageItems(1)

VBScript indexes start at 1 for object collections; however, VBScript allows you to specify whether array indexes start at 1 or 0. For information on specifying the index start number for arrays, see any VBScript textbook or tutorial.

Creating new objects

You can use a script to create new objects. To create objects that are available from collection objects, use the collection object’s

Set myDoc = appRef.Documents.Add()

Set myLayer = myDoc.Layers.Add()

Some collection objects do not have an Add method. To create an object of this type, define a variable and use the

CreateObject method. For example, the following code creates a new CMYKColor object using

the variable name

Add method:

newColor:

Set newColor = CreateObject ("Illustrator.CMYKColor")

Working with selections

When the user makes a selection in a document, the selected objects are stored in the document’s

selection property. To access all selected objects in the active document:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application") Set documentRef = appRef.ActiveDocument selectedObjects = documentRef.Selection

The following sample gets the first object in the array, then displays the object’s type:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application") Set documentRef = appRef.ActiveDocument selectedObjects = documentRef.Selection Set topObject = selectedObjects(0) MsgBox(topObject.Typename)

The MsgBox method does not display a dialog when the script is run from the Illustrator Scripts menu (File > Scripts).

typename property.

The first object in a selection array is the selected object that was last added to the page, not the last object selected.

Selecting artwork objects

To select an artwork object, use the object’s Selected property.

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Working with text frames 58

Working with text frames

To create a text frame of a specific type in VBScript, use the TextFrames method that corresponds to the type of frame you want to create:

Set rectRef = docRef.PathItems.Rectangle(700, 50, 100, 100)

' Use the AreaText method to create the text frame Set areaTextRef = docRef.TextFrames.AreaText(rectRef)

Threaded frames

As in the Illustrator application, you can thread area path frames or path text frames.

To thread existing text frames, use the

When copying the following script to a script or text editor, place the value of the one line. The long-line continuation character (

Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application") Set myDoc = appRef.Documents.Add Set myPathItem1 = myDoc.PathItems.Rectangle(244, 64, 82, 76) Set myTextFrame1 = myDoc.TextFrames.AreaText(myPathItem1)

myTextFrame1.Contents = "This is two text frames linked together as one story, with

text flowing from the first to the last." Set myPathItem2 = myDoc.PathItems.Rectangle(144, 144, 42, 116) Set myTextFrame2 = myDoc.TextFrames.AreaText(myPathItem2)

'Use the NextFrame property to thread the frames myTextFrame1.NextFrame = myTextFrame2

appRef.Redraw()

NextFrame or PreviousFrame property of the TextFrames object.

Contents property on

_) is not valid when enclosed in a string.

Threaded frames make a single story object

Threaded frames make a single story object. To observe this, run the following VBScript after running the script in “

Set myDoc = appRef.ActiveDocument myMsg = "alert(""There are " & CStr(myDoc.TextFrames.Count) & " text frames. "")" appRef.DoJavaScript myMsg myMsg = "alert(""There are " & CStr(myDoc.Stories.Count) & " storiess. "")" appRef.DoJavaScript myMsg

Threaded frames” on page 58.

Creating paths and shapes

This section explains how to create items that contain paths.

Paths

To create a freeform path, specify a series of path points, as a series of either x-y coordinates or PathPoint objects.

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Creating paths and shapes 59

Using x-y coordinates limits the path to straight segments. To created a curved path, you must create

PathPoint objects. Your path can comprise a combination of page coordinates and PathPoint objects.

Specifying a series of x-y coordinates

To specify a path using page-coordinate pairs, use the SetEntirePath() method of the PathItems object. The following script specifies three pairs of x-y coordinates, to create a path with three points:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application")

Set firstPath = appRef.ActiveDocument.PathItems.Add

firstPath.Stroked = True

firstPath.SetEntirePath(Array(Array(220, 475),Array(375, 300),Array(200, 300)))

Using path point objects

To create a PathPoint object, you must define three values for the point:

X A fixed anchor point, which is the point on the path.

X A pair of direction points—left direction and right direction—which allow you to control the

path segment’s curve.

You define each property as an array of page coordinates in the format

X If all three properties of a PathPoint object have the same coordinates, and the properties of the next

PathPoint in the line are equal to each other, you create a straight-line segment.

X If two or more properties in a PathPoint object hold different values, the segment connected to the

(Array (x,y)).

point is curved.

To create a path or add points to an existing path using add the path points as child objects in the

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application")

Set firstPath = appRef.ActiveDocument.PathItems.Add

firstPath.Stroked = true

Set newPoint = firstPath.PathPoints.Add 'Using identical coordinates creates a straight segment newPoint.Anchor = Array(75, 300) newPoint.LeftDirection = Array(75, 300) newPoint.RightDirection = Array(75, 300)

Set newPoint2 = firstPath.PathPoints.Add newPoint2.Anchor = Array(175, 250) newPoint2.LeftDirection = Array(175, 250) newPoint2.RightDirection = Array(175, 250)

Set newPoint3 = firstPath.PathPoints.Add 'Using different coordinates creates a curve newPoint3.Anchor = Array(275, 290) newPoint3.LeftDirection = Array(135, 150) newPoint3.RightDirection = Array(155, 150)

PathItem:

PathPoint objects, create a PathItem object, then

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Creating paths and shapes 60

Combining path-point types

The following script sample creates a path with three points:

Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application") Set myDoc = appRef.ActiveDocument Set myLine = myDoc.PathItems.Add

myLine.Stroked = True myLine.SetEntirePath( Array( Array(320, 475), Array(375, 300)))

' Append another point to the line Set newPoint = myLine.PathPoints.Add

'Using identical coordinates creates a straight segment newPoint.Anchor = Array(220, 300) newPoint.LeftDirection = Array(220, 300) newPoint.RightDirection = Array(220, 300)

Shapes

To create a shape, use the PathItems method that corresponds to the shape’s name (like ellipse,

rectangle, or polygon), and use parameters to specify the shape’s position, size, and other characteristics

like the number of sides in a polygon.

Remember:

X The scripting engine processes all measurements and page coordinates as points. For details, see

“

Measurement units” on page 30.

X x and y coordinates are measured from the bottom-left corner of the document, as indicated in the

Info panel in the Illustrator application. For details, see “

Page-item positioning and dimensions” on

page 30.

Creating a rectangle

Consider the following sample:

Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application") Set frontDocument = appRef.ActiveDocument ' Create a new rectangle with ' top = 144, left side = 144, width = 72, height = 144 Set newRectangle = frontDocument.PathItems.Rectangle(144,144,72,144)

The sample creates a rectangle with these properties:

X The top of the rectangle is 2 inches (144 points) from the bottom edge of the page.

X The left edge is 2 inches (144 points) from the left edge of the page.

X The rectangle is 1 inch (72 points) wide and 2 inches (144 points) long.

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Working with enumeration values 61

Creating a polygon

Consider the following sample:

Set appRef = CreateObject("Illustrator.Application") Set frontDocument = appRef.ActiveDocument ' Create a new polygon with ' top = 144, left side = 288, width = 72, height = 144 Set newPolygon = frontDocument.PathItems.Polygon(144,288,72,7)

The sample creates a polygon with these properties:

X The center point of the object is inset 2 inches (144 points) on the horizontal axis and 4 inches

(288 points) on the vertical axis.

X The length of the radius from the center point to each corner is 1 inch (72 points).

X The polygon has 7 sides.

Working with enumeration values

Properties that use enumeration values in VBScript use a numeral rather than a text value. For example, the

Orientation property of the TextFrame object specifies whether text content in the text frame is

horizontal or vertical. The property uses the values,

aiHorizontal and aiVertical.

aiTextOrientation enumeration, which has two possible

To find the numeral values of enumerations, use either of the following:

X The object browser in your scripting editor environment. See “Viewing the VBScript object model” on

page 10.

X The Adobe Illustrator CS5 Scripting Reference: VBScript, which lists the numeral values directly after the

constant value in the “Enumerations” chapter at the end of the book. The following example is from that table:

Enumeration type Values What it means

AiTextOrientation aiHorizontal = 0

aiVertical = 1

The orientation of text in a text frame

The following sample specifies vertical text orientation:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application") Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add Set textRef = docRef.TextFrames.Add textRef.Contents = "This is some text content." textRef.Left = 50 textRef.Top = 700 textRef.Orientation = 1

Generally, it is considered good scripting practice to place the text value in a comment following the numeral value, as in the following sample statement:

textRef.Orientation = 1 ' aiVertical

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Working with the perspective grid 62

Working with the perspective grid

The SDK provides an API for working with the perspective grid programmatically, and your scripts have some access to this API. A script can:

X Set a the default grid parameters using preset values.

X Show or hide the grid.

X Set the active plane.

X Draw an object in perspective on the active plane.

X Bring an object into perspective.

Use perspective presets

Illustrator provides default grid-parameter presets for one-point, two-point, and three-point perspectives. The presets are named

"[1P-NormalView]", "[2P-NormalView]", and "[3P-NormalView]".

The script shows how to select the two-point perspective preset programmatically:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application")

Rem Create a new document Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add()

Rem Select the default two-point perspective preset docRef.SelectPerspectivePreset("[2P-Normal View]")

You can create new perspective presets, export presets to files, and import presets from files. These scripts shows how to export and import presets:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application") Rem Create a new document Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add() Rem Export perspective presets to a file docRef.ExportPerspectiveGridPreset("C:/scripting/PGPresetsExported")

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application") Rem Create a new document Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add() Rem Import perspective presets from a file docRef.ImportPerspectiveGridPreset("C:/scripting/PGPresets")

Show or hide the grid

This script shows or hides the Perspective Grid programmatically:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application")

Rem Create a new document

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Working with the perspective grid 63

Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add()

Rem Show the Perspective Grid defined in the document docRef.ShowPerspectiveGrid();

Rem Hide the Perspective Grid defined in the document docRef.HidePerspectiveGrid();

Set the active plane

The perspective grid plane types are:

Left plane

Right plane

Floor plane

Invalid plane

aiLEFTPLANE (1)

aiRIGHTPLANE (2)

aiFLOORPLANE (3)

aiNOPLANE (4)

For a one-point perspective grid, only the left and floor plane are valid.

This script sets the active perspective plane to the left plane:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application")

Rem Create a new document Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add()

Rem Set left plane as the active plane docRef.SetPerspectiveActivePlane(1) 'aiLEFTPLANE

Draw on a perspective grid

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application")

Rem Create a new document Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add()

Rem Select the default two point perspective preset docRef.SelectPerspectivePreset("[2P-Normal View]")

Rem Display the perspective grid defined in the document docRef.ShowPerspectiveGrid()

Rem Check if active plane is set to left, otherwise set it to left If docRef.GetPerspectiveActivePlane() <> 1 Then docRef.SetPerspectiveActivePlane(1) 'aiLEFTPLANE End If

Rem Draw rectangle in perspective, then resize to 200% and move Set pathItemRect = docRef.PathItems.Rectangle(30, -30, 30, 30, False)

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Working with the perspective grid 64

call pathItemRect.Resize(200, 200, True, False, False, False, 100, 2) call pathItemRect.Translate(-420, 480)

Rem Draw ellipse in perspective Set pathItemEllipse = docRef.PathItems.Ellipse(60, -60, 30, 30, False, True)

Rem Draw rounded rectangle in perspective Set pathItemRRect = docRef.PathItems.RoundedRectangle(90, -90, 30, 30, 10, 10, False)

Rem Draw polygon in perspective Set pathItemPoly = docRef.PathItems.Polygon(-105, 105, 15, 7, False)

Rem Draw star in perspective Set pathItemStar = docRef.PathItems.Star(-135, 135, 15, 10, 6, False)

Rem Draw path in perspective Set newPath = docRef.PathItems.Add() newPath.SetEntirePath(Array(Array(0,0),Array(60,0),Array(30,45),Array(90,110)))

Bring objects into perspective

If an art object is not in perspective, use the bringInPerspective() method to bring it into perspective and place it on a plane.

This script creates a new document, draws art objects, and brings them into perspective on a three-point perspective grid:

Set appRef = CreateObject ("Illustrator.Application")

Rem Create a new document Set docRef = appRef.Documents.Add()

Rem Draw ellipse Set pathItemEllipse = docRef.PathItems.Ellipse(60, -60, 30, 30, False, True)

Rem Draw polygon Set pathItemPoly = docRef.PathItems.Polygon(-105, 105, 15, 7, False)

Rem Draw star Set pathItemStar = docRef.PathItems.Star(-135, 135, 15, 10, 6, False)

Rem Select the default three-point perspective preset docRef.SelectPerspectivePreset("[3P-Normal View]")

Rem Display the perspective grid defined in the document docRef.ShowPerspectiveGrid()

Rem Check if active plane is set to left, otherwise set it to left If docRef.GetPerspectiveActivePlane() <> 1 Then docRef.SetPerspectiveActivePlane(1) 'aiLEFTPLANE End If

Rem Bring the ellipse to the active plane (left plane) Call pathItemEllipse.BringInPerspective(100,100, 1) 'aiLEFTPLANE

Rem Bring the polygon to the right plane Call pathItemPoly.BringInPerspective(100,-100,2) 'aiRIGHTPLANE

CHAPTER 6: Scripting with VBScript Working with the perspective grid 65

Rem Bring the star to the floor plane Call pathItemStar.BringInPerspective(100,100,3) 'aiFLOORPLANE

Index

actions, about, 6 Adobe Illustrator

Plug-in Software Development Kit Function

Reference, 32 aki properties, 30 anchor points, 32 AppleScript

dictionary, 9 file extensions, 7

naming conventions, 19 application version, 26 applying styles, about, 24 attributes, about, 24

centimeters, conversion, 30 character styles

Macromedia Illustrator - CS5 Scripting Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Introduction

What is scripting?

Why use scripting?

What about actions?

Scripting language support in Adobe Illustrator CS5

Script file extensions

JavaScript development options

Developing a CS5 extension using ActionScript

ExtendScript features

Viewing sample scripts

Viewing the object model

Viewing the JavaScript object model

Viewing the AppleScript object model

Viewing the VBScript object model

Executing scripts

Installing scripts in the Scripts menu

Executing scripts from the Other Scripts menu item

Startup scripts (.jsx scripts only)

Application-specific startup scripts folder

General startup scripts folder

Changes in CS5

Ruler origin

Enumeration

Class

Data class

Known issues

The Illustrator Scripting Object Model

Object-naming conventions

Top-level (containing) objects

Application

Document

Layer

The artwork tree

Art styles

Color objects

Tex t objects

Text frames

Text geometry

Objects that represent text content

Tex t rang es

Tex t st yle s

Dynamic objects

Symbols

Transformations

Scripting Illustrator

Launching and quitting Illustrator from a script

Launching and activating Illustrator

AppleScript

JavaScript

VBScript

Quitting Illustrator

AppleScript

JavaScript

VBScript

Working with objects

Getting the frontmost document or layer

Creating new objects

Collection objects

AppleScript

JavaScript

VBScript

Selected objects

Selecting text

Selecting art items

Referring to selected art items

Notes on renaming objects stored in the application’s panels

Measurement units

Em space units

Page-item positioning and dimensions

Art item bounds

Paths and shapes

User-interaction levels

AppleScript

JavaScript

VBScript

Printing Illustrator documents