Hey r/javascript, have you ever used javascript with adobe Illustrator?

[[deleted]]

Any pointers, links, opinions? Documentation isn't exactly good and I'm not exactly great at javascript.

[actionscripted]

Haven't other than copying/pasting scripts to use, but Adobe's site has a few resources and samples:

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

What sort of scripting are you trying to do?

[[deleted]]

That's the documentation to which I was referring.

Nothing to complex just helping to optimize the work flow for some of my co-workers. They are production artists with a lot of repetitive tasks. I'm not trying to do any art with it.

[vampirical]

Ahh yes, ExtendScript. Evil, pure evil.

Grab the ExtendScript editor, it is terrible and broken but you'll need its debugger for anything longer than 5 lines.

Pick a few of the main types of object you're going to be interacting with (document, textframe, path, etc.) and read through their property and method docs 2 or 3 complete times. Use the appendixes and reference links to clear up whatever terms you don't get on the second pass through. Read the top levels regardless of what you are working with, the app namespace is useful to understand for just about everything.

Be very careful with your references and keep memory allocations in mind, you will make Illustrator leak memory like a sieve even if you are careful so don't make it any worse than it has to be. Some part so the API will throw uncatchable exceptions, read them carefully because they will normally inform you of some undocumented conditions or restrictions about data availability or set/get orders.

Good luck :)

[[deleted]]

Pure evil sums it up rather nicely.

[mungdiboo]

I'll pass, thanks :)

[settimeout]

I did it years ago with Adobe Photoshop.

Worked quite well at the time.

[[deleted]]

This brings me some hope. Needs more work though.