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 active document property in JavaScript or VBScript. Similarly, you can use 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 active dataset or active view. For details, see the Adobe lllustrator CC 2017 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.
The following objects must be created explicitly:
CMYK colordocument presetEPS save optionsexport options AutoCADexport options Flashexport options GIFexport options JPEGexport options Photoshopexport options PNG8export options PNG24export options SVGexport options TIFFfilefoldergradient colorgray colorIllustrator save optionsinkink infolab colormatrixMXG save optionsno coloropen optionsopen options AutoCADopen options FreeHandopen options PDFopen options Photoshoppaper infoPattern colorPDF save optionsPPD filePPD file infoprint color management optionsprint color separation optionsprint coordinate optionsprinterprinter infoprint flattener optionsprint font optionsprint job optionsprint optionsprint page marks optionsprint paper optionsprint postscript optionsraster effect optionsrasterize optionsscreenscreen spot functionRGB colorspot colortracing options
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¶
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]
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 lllustrator CC 2017 Scripting Reference: AppleScript or the Properties table in Adobe lllustrator CC 2017 Scripting Reference: JavaScript or Adobe lllustrator CC 2017 Scripting Reference: VBScript. A diagram of the lllustrator CC 2017 object model is in The Illustrator Scripting Object Model.
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 typename property that you can use to determine the object’s type. In
AppleScript, use the class property.
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.
BrushGradientGraphic StylePatternSwatchSymbolVariable