Menu
Cart
rj-graffix
Cart
Search
  • Home
    • What’s new
    • Register
    • Edit Your Profile
    • My Account
    • Log In
  • Downloads
    • Adobe Illustrator plugins
      • AxoTools
      • Cleanup Tool
      • Concatenate
      • Cutting Tools
      • IsoTool
      • Nudge Panel
      • Select Menu
      • Square Up
      • TextSync
      • ToolShed
      • Productivity Pack
    • Scripts
    • Actions
  • Illustration
    • Illustration
    • Clipart
  • Forums
    • Graffix plugins general discussion
    • AxoTools
  • Support
    • Support
    • Contact
    • Documentation
    • Educational Discount
    • Terms and conditions
    • About Graffix
Close Menu
Close Cart
January 29, 2021

Illustrator AppleScripts updated for 2020-21

Rick Johnson

Holy mackerel (as Wisconsin governor Tony Evers — and I — would say), it’s sure been a while since the free Illustrator scripts here were updated. The old version 10 scripts are still there, along with 31 updated for Illustrator 2020 and 2021. I’ve recently retired, but there’s no reason the scripts can’t continue working for others! They’re AppleScripts for Macs, but that’s what I knew best and what I worked on at the magazine publisher.

There aren’t any wiffy design effects. It’s more a collection of in-the-trenches workhorse scripts that got me through a lot of mundane tasks. Here’s an example. Revising old maps or illustrations can get complicated when text styles change from one year to the next, or from one publication to another. When I created the templates for each title they included character styles for callouts, figure numbers, titles, cities, states, copyright, etc. When reusing older art, there were different approaches one could take with the help of a few scripts.

I’d typically start with a new document using a template, then copy and paste the old art into the new document. With everything still selected, choose the script “re-apply char styles” so, for example, the old-styled text would be updated to the current font specs. The script first hides all unselected text so all you see is the new stuff. Next it updates selected text to defined styles, and the updated text is then hidden as well. At this point, the remaining text needs to be assigned one of the standard character styles. This eliminates the problem of straggler callouts that show up later in an oddball font or size. Now you can show the hidden art and make adjustments as needed. More often than not, the art needed to be scaled to fit a different size or shape, so after scaling, the selected text can have its standard font size restored in one fell swoop.

The templates I made include sample text showing all of the character styles, as well as graphic bits with symbols and graphic styles. Sometimes it was simpler to copy these samples to older art (saved under a new file name) and run the script “redefine char styles from selection.” The selected sample art can now be deleted, then run the script “find unstyled text” to select and apply standard styles to any style stragglers.

If a script is not quite what you need, I’d encourage you to open it in a script editor and experiment with modifying it.

Adobe Illustrator AppleScripts for 2020-21

I hope you find them useful!

Call for AxoTools testers: compound rotations Text edits outside of Illustrator, using TextSync

Related Posts

Product Updates, Tips

Build a dodecahedron in AxoTools!

Product Updates

AxoTools adds Transformations panel for compound rotations

New Products, Tips

Text edits outside of Illustrator, using TextSync

Recent Posts

  • Build a dodecahedron in AxoTools!
  • AxoTools adds Transformations panel for compound rotations
  • Text edits outside of Illustrator, using TextSync
  • Illustrator AppleScripts updated for 2020-21
  • Call for AxoTools testers: compound rotations

Archives

  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016

Categories

  • Back-stories
  • New Products
  • Product Updates
  • Tips
  • Uncategorized
Back To Top
rj-graffix
©2021 Rick Johnson/Graffix