The biggested pain point when implementing scripting support for plugins is that if you want to add objects that interact with built-in Illustrator script objects (LiveObjects) like Layers, Documents or PageItems. While it's possible to correctly parse whether you're being passed the correct scripting object (e.g. a Layer and not something else) you can't actually determine the handle for the specified object; that lives inside the ScriptingSupport.aip and has no public API.

Perhaps a small suite could be added that provides methods like this:

AIAPI AIErr (GetDocumenttHandle) (long hObject, AIDocumentHandle& outHandle);
AIAPI AIErr (GetLayerHandle) (long hObject, AILayerHandle& outHandle);
AIAPI AIErr (GetPageItemHandle) (long hObject, AIArtHandle& outHandle);

These are the three most important objects, but more could be added in the future.

Starting with Illustrator 2022 (26.4.1), the ability to create bulleted and numbered lists has been implemented. Text to which lists are applied can be obtained in ExtendScript or AppleScript by using the listStyle property.

However, normal text that is not bulleted and numbered lists (hereinafter called "normal text") has no listStyle assigned to it, and referencing it causes an error. The following problem occurs.

Issue 1: ExtendScript and AppleScript cannot directly change lists to normal text

Expected state

For example, the following script (ExtendScript) can change a paragraph to normal text.

var doc = app.documents[0] ;
var targetParagraph = doc.selection[0].paragraphs[0] ;
var noListStyle = doc.listStyles.getByName('None') ; // no exists
targetParagraph.listStyle = noListStyle ;

Actual state

Indirectly change a paragraph to normal text by applying a predefined paragraph style, etc.

Issue 2: Cannot get paragraph properties in AppleScript

Steps to reproduce

1. Prepare a text frame without lists applied in the document
2. With it selected, run the following AppleScript

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
    set target_paragraph to paragraph 1 of (item 1 of (selection of document 1))
    properties of target_paragraph -- error
end tell

Expected result

The properties of the target paragraph can be retrieved as record.

{character offset:1, length:11, contents:"Lorem ipsum"...}

Actual result

Exit with error.

error "Adobe Illustrator got an error: Internal error" number 1200

Environment:

• Illustrator 2022 (26.5.0)
• macOS 11.6.8

Illustrator 2022 (26.5.0) の箇条書きをスクリプトで扱うときの問題

Illustrator 2022 (26.4.1)から，箇条書きを作る機能が実装された。箇条書きが適用されたテキストは，ExtendScriptやAppleScriptではその形式をlistStyleプロパティで調べられる。

しかし，箇条書きでない通常のテキスト（以後通常テキストと呼ぶ）にlistStyleが割り当てられておらず，参照するとエラーが起こる。そして次のような問題を呼ぶ。

Issue 1: ExtendScriptやAppleScriptでは，直接箇条書きを通常テキストに変更できない

期待する状態

例えば次のようなスクリプト（ExtendScript）で通常テキストに変更できる。

var doc = app.documents[0] ;
var targetParagraph = doc.selection[0].paragraphs[0] ;
var noListStyle = doc.listStyles.getByName('None') ; // no exists
targetParagraph.listStyle = noListStyle ;

実際の状態

事前に定義した段落スタイルを適用するなどして，間接的に通常テキストに変更する。

Issue 2: AppleScriptで段落のpropertiesを取得できない

再現手順

1. 書類に箇条書きが適用されていないテキストフレームを用意する
2. それを選択した状態で，次のAppleScriptを実行する

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
    set target_paragraph to paragraph 1 of (item 1 of (selection of document 1))
    properties of target_paragraph -- error
end tell

期待する結果

対象の段落のプロパティがrecordとして取得できる。

{character offset:1, length:11, contents:"Lorem ipsum"...}

実際の結果

エラーで終了する。

error "Adobe Illustratorでエラーが起きました: Internal error" number 1200

環境：

• Illustrator 2022 (26.5.0)
• macOS 11.6.8

Allow for access to the selection geometricBounds as a whole. Also bounds for the clipped area only (ignore hidden areas).

In Illustrator, the Transform window displays the position, width and height for all objects selected and it does not display clipped areas. when you size an object by entering a dimension, you don't have to worry about clipped areas. in scripting you do.

The geometricBounds, visibleBounds, controlBounds, height and width properties give you the size of clipped objects. for a couple of items you can check if each is clipped and if it is, you can then retrieve the first pathItem of the clipped group and get its geometricBounds.

This gets very complicated with a group that is not clipped containing clipped items. So first testing if the selected group is clipped will return false. So you dig inside of it and check to see if any group inside the group is clipped. Then you drill inside those groups to see if any group inside them is clipped. When you have all the clipped areas then you have to compare their bounding boxes to get the overall bounding box without the clipped objects. point being, it is really difficult to get the visible bounds of the selection.

But why should we do all this work for information that Illustrator already has displayed on the Transform window?

So why not just give this information to us? Please allow access to the numbers in the Transform window! Illustrator already knows these numbers. just give them to us please I beg you!

Furthermore allow for transforming selections as a whole like you would in the transform window.

According to the documentation for kATEDocumentResourceChangedNotifier, it is supposed to be "Sent when ATE document resources, such as named style, have changed."

I have never found this to be true, in any version since the ATE was added. This has always been a serious pain point, because we build small previews of text styles and we have to rebuild them every time we open a UI that shows them, because we have no way of knowing if they have changed (or if they even still exist, or any have been added!).

Since it's never been sent before, there can't be much code expecting it -- so how much downside could there be to suddenly start sending them correctly?

There is a typo in ExportOptionsTIFF in Illustrator JavaScript Scripting Reference.pdf, which fails to specify whether or not LZW compression is used. Please correct it.

I have checked and it was wrong from the CS6 version.

Expected Name: lZWCompression (begins with a lowercase L)
Actual Name: IZWCompression (begins with an uppercase i)

The function name in the example is also wrong. exportFileToTIFF should be correct.

Exporting to TIFF format

// Exports current document to dest as a TIFF file with specified
// options, dest contains the full path including the file name

function exportFileToPSD (dest) { // <-- exportFileToTIFF
  if ( app.documents.length > 0 ) {
    var exportOptions = new ExportOptionsTIFF();
    var type = ExportType.TIFF;
    var fileSpec = new File(dest);
    exportOptions.resolution = 150;
    exportOptions.byteOrder = TIFFByteOrder.IBMPC;
    exportOptions.IZWCompression = false;
    app.activeDocument.exportFile( fileSpec, type, exportOptions );
  }
}