Script Hero for Adobe Illustrator

Script Hero is a growing library of ExtendScript utility functions for Adobe Illustrator plus a collection of scripts written with the library.

Over the years, I've written a bunch of scripts to help with Adobe Illustrator projects. As a result, I have dozens of scripts that do much the same thing with minor customizations. I would often start a new script by copy-pasting from existing ones. Then I'd spend time reminding myself how things work, adjusting, and testing. Script Hero started because I wanted a faster & easier way to reuse tested code across multiple projects.

Project Structure

Script-Hero
├── .vscode
├── docs
├── document-hero
├── library
│   ├── actions
│   ├── external
│   ├── helpers
│   ├── tests
│   └── utilities
├── swatch-hero
├── swatches-add
├── test-files
└── transform-hero

Documentation

As a technical writer who works with all kinds of scripts, I aim for just-in-time documentation. I lean towards documenting things in-place and try to minimize the need to leave a project to read documentation.

So, while there is some informative stuff in this repo's docs directory, the most useful info can be found in the files themselves.

• Each directory in this repo has a README with good-to-know stuff.
• Every jsx file has a header with need-to-know information.
• Utilities are documented in-place using JSDoc and a good amount of commenting.
• A quick way to see all utilities is to open the module's file, scroll to the bottom, and look at the return.
• Every utility module has a corresponding test module demonstrating how to work with utilities and see what they do.

VS Code Support

It's no secret that consistent code is easier to work with - especially when you put it down for a while. As mentioned, Script Hero started as a roundup of code I was repeating in various scripts.

The .vscode directory has all kinds of code snippets to help me refactor in a standardized way and to write scripts using the library. Things aren't perfectly standardized and may never be, but the important things - like a modular approach & error handling - are solid and these snippets help to support that.

Everything in the .vscode directory is specific to ExtendScript and Adobe Illustrator and includes:

• Templates for scripts, utilities, and tests
• @include statements for every utility module
• JSDoc @tags
• Common loops and switches
• Function parameter checks
• A settings.json with spell check words

Library

The only things you need to work with Script Hero are global.jsx and the library directory.

• library/utilities are organized as modules and are the heart of Script Hero.
• library/tests are the corresponding tests for each utility module.
• library/helpers are stand-alone scripts not meant to be used in workflows or by other scripts.
• library/actions are Illustrator Action files used when something can't be scripted directly.
• library/external holds 3rd party JavaScript libraries.

Scripts

Other directories in this repo contain scripts written using Script Hero utilities. Some scripts are meant to be customized as-needed. These settings are found in global.jsx.

Swatch Hero

The scripts in swatch-hero are what inspired Script Hero.

• swatch-legend create a grid of tiles with optional color data for selected swatches.
• swatch-data-export and item-color-export export color data to a CSV file. Data include the source color comps and conversions to other color spaces.
• swatches-random randomly applies selected swatches to selected items.

Swatches Add

The scripts in swatches-add are templates for adding Swatches to a document. There is one for each type of Swatch - CMYK, RGB, LAB, and grayscale for both Process and Spot colors.

Transform Hero

I wrote the scripts in transform-hero to help with random patterns. There is one for opacity, rotation, scale, translation, and z-index. The broad ideas are:

• They work like Transform Each on selected items.
• They can perform set or randomized operations.
• They can undo the operations they perform.

Document Hero

The scripts in document-hero are my current project. Here, the big ideas are:

• document-export for exporting to various formats and scales.
• delete-unused-panel-items for reducing file size.
• file-info for updating the File > File Info fields.
• artboard-names-from-layers for renaming artboards using layer names.

Contribute

If you have a suggestion or find a bug, I would love to know. Please create an issue.

FWW I am not a GitHub expert and this project is a work in progress. This is to say that I have no idea how to work with branches or pull requests. And I have zero time to learn right now. Everything I work on is immediately available on the main branch.