Illustrator Extendscripts

A useful set of scripts for Adobe Illustrator that solve many unique problems for graphic designers.

The scripts are made to help designers speed up their workflows by mapping the most used scripts to hotkeys. Open each .jsx file and read the top blurb to understand the script's functionality.

Many of the scripts were made with a graphic designer's print shop workflow in mind but most can easily be used in other workflows.

The most useful script is probably proof.jsx which allows a designer to easily create many new organized iterations of projects for many clients in only a few clicks. proof.jsx requires an Illustrator template .ait file to function which is accessed to automatically conform a designer's desired work into a client proof as a final export.

Modularity

Provided are both jsx_modules.jsx and dialogWidgets.jsx which do nothing when executed directly (no main() function) but provide many useful functions to the other scripts.
Use and add to these meta scripts if you write your own scripts. Especially add to dialogWidgets.jsx since it is missing much functionality.

Installation

1. Open the scripts directory for your current version of Illustrator:
   C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator VERSION/Presets/en_US/Scripts

2. Set the user permissions of this directory in its properties security tab to allow full control in order to prevent permission errors when moving files in and out of the folder.

3. Clone this repository into the /Scripts directory. Do not clone into a sub folder of /Scripts since Illustrator does not search for scripts in sub folders.
   Since /Scripts probably has files already existing in it, Git might not let you clone into the folder. In this case...

   1. Rename the /Scripts folder to a temporary name.
   2. Clone the repo to a new /Scripts folder.
   3. Then move the contents of the older folder to the new one.

4. Once downloaded and set up, manually duplicate "scriptPanel_startup - DUPLICATE REFERENCE.jsx" from /config/startupScripts to the Illustrator startup scripts folder: (create the folder if it doesn't exist) C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator VERSION/Startup Scripts

5. Finally, remove " - DUPLICATE REFERENCE" from the file name.

6. Restart Illustrator to update the script list in File > Scripts

Optimize Usage

For more ergonomic ways to access scripts:

1. Assign hotkeys in Illustrator
   1. Window > Actions
   2. Create a new action (and stop the action recording immediately after)
   3. Window > Actions > Insert Menu Item...
   4. Enter in the script name, click "Find:", and click OK.
2. Use scriptPanel.jsx
   • scriptPanel.jsx allows you to click on scripts in a list UI, but it is slow to execute scripts.
   • Use the JSX Launcher extension by Ten Agata. It is faster than scriptPanel.jsx but has its own disadvantages. https://exchange.adobe.com/creativecloud.details.12096.jsx-launcher.html
     Window > Extensions

Adobe ExtendScript

ExtendScript is based off of ECMAScript 3. This means you cannot use the latest ES6 functionality in Illustrator scripts.

If you want to implement ES6-like functionality, see section "Adding Methods to Prototype and its Issues" below.
https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/what-version-of-javascript-supported/td-p/10488199

Documentation & References

Note: Even though the following appear to be out of date, they are not.

• ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CC 2017SCRIPTING REFERENCE: JAVASCRIPT - ADOBE® ILLUSTRATOR® CC 2017
  https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/illustrator/pdf/Illustrator_JavaScript_Scripting_Reference_2017.pdf

• JAVASCRIPT TOOLS GUIDE - ADOBE® CREATIVE SUITE® 5
  https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/scripting/estk/javascript_tools_guide.pdf

• Adobe Illustrator CS6 Type Library
  http://jongware.mit.edu/iljscs6html/iljscs6/

• Adobe community
  https://community.adobe.com/

• ScriptUI Builder
  https://scriptui.joonas.me/
  Documentation
  https://adobeindd.com/view/publications/a0207571-ff5b-4bbf-a540-07079bd21d75/92ra/publication-web-resources/pdf/scriptui-2-16-j.pdf

Custom jsx panels

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/can-i-make-a-button-to-run-a-script/td-p/10043240?page=1

Controlling Additional User Options/Preferences

You can execute certain Illustrator menu commands that aren't usually available through typical JavaScript syntax.

See _commands.txt

You can also directly target and change specific user options/preferences:

For example, to change the "Scale Corners" toggle for the scale transformation of objects, you can use:
preferences.getIntegerPreference("policyForPreservingCorners")
preferences.setIntegerPreference("policyForPreservingCorners", 1)

Path to list of preferences:

C:/Users/{USER}/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator {CURRENT ILLUSTRATOR VERSION} Settings/en_US/x64...
/Adobe Illustrator Prefs
/Adobe Illustrator Cloud Prefs

Initializing scripts

You do not need to use the custom initialization functions at the start of any new scripts to make them work. They only exist to help you get a head start.

ScriptUI, Creating User Dialogs

Don't waste your time creating dialogs manually.
Instead use: https://scriptui.joonas.me/ (only works in Chrome).

Setting Default Hotkeys for Buttons (ENTER and ESCAPE)

In the Chrome scriptUI creator:

OK:

• Set a button's Custom Name to "ok".
• Set Text to whatever is appropriate.

Cancel:

• Set a button's Custom Name to "cancel"
• Set Text to whatever is appropriate.

Illustrator Window Flickering

Flickering occurs when dialog inputs are set to active by default when a user closes a dialog window. This happens because an active input by default transfers window focus back to Illustrator on dialog close which conflicts with the following line:
BridgeTalk.bringToFront("illustrator") // comment out if any dialog inputs are active by default to prevent double Illustrator focus and therefore window flickering

Position Coordinate System

When working with position coordinates, know that internally/in ExtendScript the coordinate system is [x, y], but the Illustrator GUI treats it as [x, -y].

Adding Methods to Prototype and its Issues

Do not add to any protoype as you will get errors when you try to iterate over objects with for-in loops. It's generally bad practice anyways unless you really know what you are doing.

i.e.: Object.prototype.myNewMethod = function() {...}
If you need to add new methods then do: Object.myNewMethod = function() {...}

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10757455/object-prototype-is-verboten

XML

You can store, access, and edit XML.
/config/scriptConfig.xml is already loaded with data that you will need to change for your system depending on what scripts you use. Or just make your own XML file as needed while using the provided file as reference.

Selection Object Desync

Use redraw() or set an object's position to itself to fix weird debugger desync issues.

i.e.: selection[0].position = selection[0].position

redraw() unfortunately adds to the undo stack which can be annoying for the user when they undo the result of a script. So use the weird position setting solution instead which does not seem to have any drawbacks.

Debugging - VSCode Adobe ExtendScript Debugger

The official ExtendScript debugger is terrible and crashes half the time when you use it, seriously. There is no way around this because there are no other ExtendScript debuggers for VSCode (that are known). If the debug process crashes then just try to run it again. If it doesn't start then restart VSCode. Sometimes you have to restart it twice because you'll continue to get errors! Yes, it's that bad.

Both the Debug Process and Illustrator Lockup Together:

1. Close VSCode and wait for Illustrator to respond again.
2. Reopen VSCode and comment out BridgeTalk.bringToFront("illustrator") before debugging as that line seems to cause this problem.
3. Don't forget to uncomment it again when you're done debugging.
   This issue seems to exclusively occur when sometimes displaying ScriptUI dialogs.

Inconsistent Results Between Native Execution and Debugging

Sometimes a script will produce different results depending on whether you ran it through the debug process or directly from Illustrator.
Be sure to test both when writing code or just use your best judgement.

Updating launch.json after a major version update to Illustrator

C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator VERSION/Presets/en_US/Scripts/.vscode
Or, while in VSCode click on the gear icon next to the debug button when the relevant debugger is selected.

When you install a new major version of Illustrator and want to use the ExtendScript debugger for that version then you will need to update launch.json by simply incrementing the targetSpecifier value to the version of Illustrator you are now using. You shouldn't need to change the numbers after the decimal.

For exmaple:
"targetSpecifier": "illustrator-25.064"
would change to...
"targetSpecifier": "illustrator-26.064"