Posts Tagged ‘automation’

How to Script in Adobe Illustrator (Adobe)

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

[Editor’s note: I get asked frequently how to get into automating Illustrator via scripting. My favorite language is JavaScript (it’s cross platform) but there is also AppleScript (Mac) and Visual Basic (PC). A listing of all my scripts is here, including my recent script for creating calendars. Adobe does a good job of getting you started with several introductory and intermediate manuals. Plus they even offer a free toolkit application for writing the JavaScripts. The new scripting guides for CS4 are up on Adobe’s site, including how to use Flash panel inside Illustrator to make more interesting graphical user interfaces (or hit testing). There’s new information on using TabStops in there over CS3 and documentation on how to script the new Artboards feature. Give it a try!]

Republished from Adobe.com.

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4 SCRIPTING

A script is a series of commands that tells Illustrator to perform one or more tasks. Adobe Illustrator CS4 supports scripts written in AppleScript, JavaScript or VBScript. Sample scripts are included in the Adobe Illustrator CS4 installer and get installed with the product. The latest available scripting documentation is provided below:

SAMPLES

Adobe Illustrator CS3 FlashPanel Sample

The FlashPanel sample for Adobe Illustrator CS3 shows how to script Illustrator from Flash using ScriptUI’s FlashPlayer control. The sample illustrates how rich user interfaces created by Flash authoring tools such as Adobe Flex Builder 2 can interact with Illustrator’s scripting object model.

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Posted in Best practices, Flash, Promote, scripting, Software | 3 Comments »

MAPublisher 8.0 Adds Automatic Flash Map Creation (MacNN)

Monday, December 8th, 2008

[Editor’s note: New version 8 of Avenza’s MAPublisher brings CS4 compatability and new feature to export interactive Flash SWF versions of your map with viewable data attributes, layer, and pan/zoom controls. Thanks Curt!]

Republished from MacNN and Avenza.

Avenza Systems has released MAPublisher 8.0, the latest version of its cartographic plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. The update includes a new tool for automatic creation of interactive Flash maps. A MAP Vector Crop tool and dockable toolbar have also been added, along with support for Illustrator CS4. The company has improved the MAP views editor, MAP attributes interface, and the line simplification function. The import time is claimed to have been reduced by up to 80 percent.

The tool can be used to create maps based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, for high-resolution printing or electronic distribution. Many GIS data formats are supported, including ESRI, MapInfo, MicroStation, AutoCAD, Google, US Government, GML and S-57.

MAPublisher requires Illustrator CS2, CS3 or CS4, and can be purchased for $1250. Registered users of previous versions can upgrade for $550.

From the Avenza website:
More on the new MAP Web Author Tool for automatic creation of interactive Flash maps:
MAPublisher 8 introduces the MAP Web Author tool that exports Adobe Illustrator documents with GIS data to interactive Flash maps, fully completed with callout bubbles, rollovers, layer control, pan and zoom controls, and with all the underlying GIS attributes intact.
As with the other MAPublisher functions, MAP Web Author is a completely built-in to Adobe Illustrator. Therefore, users are not required to have Adobe Flash installed to benefit from this tool.

What is looks like at default. View larger

Several Customization Options. View larger.

MAP Web Author Panel. View larger.

Web Tag Template (HTML formatting of GIS attribute data for that object). View larger.


Web Tag Dialog. View larger.

Export to Web. View larger.

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Posted in Flash, Interactive, Mapping, Promote, Software | Comments Off on MAPublisher 8.0 Adds Automatic Flash Map Creation (MacNN)

Who Are You All? Thanks for Reading!

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

The reception to my Toni Mair photo essay blog post continues to blow my mind. The first day it was up on March 11th my site got 17,000 page views (7,500 unique) with 97% of those being just for that blog post! If you haven’t seen it already, check it out here.  Since then it’s gotten nearly 30,000 hits, the bulk of which come from a link-sharing site called stumbleupon.com. Hot damn! Another popular post has been about the Carbon Atlas featuring Dorling cartograms.

I started my blog at the end of November just to ramble about this and that and mostly just keep track of things that interest me; like an annotated bookmark list (complete with a tag cloud). Since then my blog has hosted visitors from 123 countries on all the continents and every state in the union. 75% of you are on Windows but 75% are using Firefox and not Internet Explorer. Only 2% are on dialup. Source: Google Analytics.

My Adobe Illustrator automation page featuring Javascript Extend scripts that I’ve either written or promote continues to get good traffic. Readers there stay on that page three times longer than the blog so they must be finding this more technical, time saving information useful, too.

I have a followup to the Toni Mair piece planned next month so please stayed tuned :) 

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Posted in General, Self promo, Site update | Comments Off on Who Are You All? Thanks for Reading!

New site, new look

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

In October, I attended the annual NACIS map conference in St. Louis, MO and demonstrated how Adobe Illustrator can be automated via JavaScripting. This can be especially useful for those needing to expand Illustrator’s default capabilities or make Illustrator behave more like the venerable Freehand (may it rest in peace). I created this website to host that presentation, and to capture some of my other projects. Last week Mordy Golding at his Real World Illustrator blog promoted my site and wow, traffic is up. So here’s a new look for a more integrated site.

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Posted in scripting, Site update | Comments Off on New site, new look