Applescript: Applying spot colors to existing paths...

OK, this is clearly a noob question, but i can't figure out the syntax... i want to apply particular spot colors to pre-existing compound paths... sounds simple enough, then why can't i find a post on this subject?.. here's a quick sample script...
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
    make new document
    make new rectangle in document 1 with properties {bounds:{20, 20, 100, 100}}
    set the fill color of the result to {class:spot color info, tint:100, spot:"Spot4"}
end tell
I'm using CS3 if that makes a difference... thanks in advance for your help...

ok, found a post from nine months ago addressing a similar problem that i found my answer within... in case any other newbies are interested...
here's the new line...
set the fill color of the result to {class:spot color info, tint:100, spot:spot "Spot4" of document 1}
thanks to the few people who looked at this post...

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Applying spot color to imported graphic

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me. I used to use Pagemaker, and it was so quick and easy to import a B/W graphic and apply spot color to it from the color palette, but when I try to do this in ID (CS3), it either just adds color to the outline of the bounding box or fills the bounding box with color and leaves the actual logo graphic black (happens with either eps or tif). I've been trying to find the right way to apply color to an import through the InDesign Help Center, but I haven't been able to find anything that seems to help, and I need to be able to do this soon!! Can anyone please give me some tips about how to handle this type of situation? Much thanks and appreciation to anyone who can help!

Thanks for both of your replies, but unfortunately, what you have both suggested is exactly what I've been doing, and nothing happens. And dragging the swatch onto the graphic hasn't done anything either. I've tried with both tif and eps files, but nothing happens with either kind of file. Anybody have any other ideas or help you can give?

Dear Spot Color Printing Gods......... Please Help Me!

Ok so here is my story...
I have been doing graphic design and 3D work for about 7 years. I have NEVER worked in print before, and no NOTHING of color separation or spot color, etc... I am learning all this right now on the fly for my new job, and its not going well. I was hired and expected to hit the ground running, even though I made it clear I did not have any screen printing experience. (I was mainly hired to help with web design) I have had some mistakes doing the color separation (not 4 color) and its costing the printer money to see if I did it wrong or not. The printer has no experience with the software (and only speaks English fairly well), nor does my boss know the software, but they both know how its SUPPOSED to look, and they are getting impatient.. Needless to say, I have to turn to the internet for help, so please be gentle with me not knowing much...
SO....Im a PC user working on a Mac & Illustrator Cs3(I know Mac fairly well). I have learned the basics pretty fast for screen printing. The printer is using spot colors only. After I get the Illustrator file (yes its vector), I delete all swatches except the "Pantone Solid Coated" colors used in the art - or I have to add them from the Solid Coated color book. After that, I would separate the colors by 1) Duplicating the image however many times that there are colors. (So a splat of soup has 3 colors, I duplicate it 3 times with register marks) 2) I remove all the color except the one Im trying to show. (Im showing the green peas, so I remove the red and yellow colors from the other objects) 3) then I make what the printer calls the "Flash" (the white undertone that the paint adheres to on the garment) I make this by taking the art, and reducing the size to 1pt smaller. Once all the colors are seperated, I make each color 100% black, convert the image to grayscale and THEN Im done. Problems I have been running into have been registration marks somehow not lining up and some colors do not end up 100% spot tones.. One other wierd thing is when I convert to grayscale on the Mac, the art work retains its color on the screen. When I tried to do that at home on my PC, the artwork turns gray????
WHEW! So what I am asking for is a fast, simple way to color seperate a vector file and then create the flash. And/or how to create a template that I can reuse, that is ready for me to just drop artwork into for spot color seperation. I have included an image to show you a project I am working on. Its an ice cream spill on a shirt. I have tried to start a template with reg. marks, and that is what you will see here. There are 5 colors that I have to specify. The printer actually told me that I do not need to split up the art work the way I have been, nor do I need to change it to black, and all that I have to do is specify all the colors,(spot colors/100% only) and then the printer does the seperation on the clear film. (it only prints in black) I was also curious why my PC would change the artwork gray and the Mac does not when converting to grayscale. I thank you VERY MUCH for even reading this maddness that is my life right now, and hope you can give me some helpful wisdom to assist and lead me on my journey. The job pays well, and I need the money badly! Thank you very much for any and all help you can give me!
~LiQ

Some misconceptions evidenced in your post.
You don't have to use a Pantone library to create spot colors. Pantone is just one brand of spot color definitions and inks intended for offset lithography; not screen printing. You can define any color you want as a Swatch and then specify it as Spot. A Spot color is simply a color that represents an individual ink that will be physically used in the printing process. Therefore, if you want to please your boss:
1. Get the color chip brochure for the particular brand(s) of screen ink your operation uses.
2. Open Illustrator. New CMYK document. Delete all the Swatches that can be deleted.
3. In the Swatches palette, for each color of your screen inks, create a new Swatch. Use the CMYK sliders to make its color match the ink as best you can. Name the swatch according to the name of the actual screen ink (ex: Nazdar_BrilliantBlue). In fact, the ink manufacturer(s) you use may already provide a ready-made Illustrator Swatch Library for their various series of inks. Check their websites to see.
4. After creating the swatches, save the Library, and/or save the file as a tempate file. Now you'll always have your Spot colors available for new projects.
Now just draw your design and apply the spot colors to the paths as fills and/or strokes. When you print the file as separations, you'll get a separate print for each spot color used. One of the simplest ways to "proof" (test) this is to "print" as separations to the Adobe PDF virtual printer. That will result in a PDF file that has one grayscale page for each ink in your design. That way, you can check what overprints and what knocks out on screen without wasting time or materials. Once confident everything is right, you can then use the PDF to print the actual film positives.
One of your swatches should be a spot white for your underprint. ( "Flash" is not actually an ink color. It's a production step in which a dryer semi-dries an imprinted ink before overprinting it with another. You usually flash a white underprint, but you just as often flash any color with significant density that needs to be overprinted with a following color.) Understand, you don't have to make this swatch actually appear white. For example, I often make it a pale magenta just so I can see it on screen when working with it.
Just because the white underprint is going to be printed underneath the other colors, doesn't mean it has to be layered under your other colors in your Illustrator document. Remember, each ink is going to be printed to its own plate anyway. So it's simpler to just put your white underprint objects on a Layer above the rest of the artwork, and set it to overprint, so that it doesn't knock out the rest of the artwork on layers below it in the stacking order.
Assuming the white underprint has to underprint all the other colors, creating the white underprint should be the near-last step. It's simply a matter of duplicating the colored artwork objects, moving them to the Underprint layer, filling/stroking them with the spot white color and (for efficiency) merging them into as few paths as possible. The Merge or Union Pathfinder commands are typically used for that.
JET

Apply Fill Color to Group Item with Applescript

Is it possible to set the fill color of a group item using applescript and CS3? The group contains paths and text that have the same fill color with no strokes.I am able to select the group and delete it or move it (with applescript) but have had no success in setting the fill color.
Thank you in advance for help on this question. And thanks for everything I have picked up from browsing.

Now that I am addressing the path items and text items of the group separately I am having some success. Now I am having difficulty getting the correct terms for assigning a Spot Color to the file. Here is a piece of the script.
This works:
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
set openDoc to document 1
set ftClr1 to (first group item whose note is "Front3") of openDoc
set ftClr1Paths to path items of ftClr1
repeat with thisPath in ftClr1Paths
set fill color of thisPath to {red:255}
end repeat
set textFrames to text frames of ftClr1
repeat with thistext in textFrames
set fill color of every line of thistext to {red:255}
end repeat
end tell
Need help to set the fill color to a Spot Color that already exists in Swatches.
Thanks
Nick

Convert color to spot color (if it exists)

Hi
I have a script I've cobbled together (apologies if it looks cumbersome!), which searches for black fills/strokes and text, and converts them to a spot color. I need to adapt it so that if it doesn't find an object matching the criteria, then it carries on, rather than stopping with an error:
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
          set mydoc to document 1
--make spot color, name it apple red
          if not (exists swatch "Black Plate Change" in mydoc) then
                    make new spot in mydoc with properties {color type:spot color, color:{cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100}, name:"Black Plate Change"}
          end if
end tell
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
          tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
                    do script "Ungroup" from "Default Actions" without dialogs
          end tell
          set fill color of every path item of document 1 whose fill color is {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "[Registration]" of document 1} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of every path item of mydoc whose fill color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of every path item of mydoc whose fill color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:40} to {class:spot color info, tint:40.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set stroke color of every path item of mydoc whose stroke color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of words of every text frame of mydoc whose fill color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of words of every text frame of mydoc whose fill color is {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "[Registration]" of document 1} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
end tell
Appreciate any help.

Use "Adjust Color" from the "Tools" menu and move the "Saturation" slider all the way to the left.

Convert from spot color to custom CMYK value in Applescript

I thought this would be very simple and it's not apparently. I am trying to convert a spot color into a custom CMYK value. Basically:
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
          set theList to every path item of current document
          repeat with k from 1 to count of theList
                    if fill color of item k of theList = {name:"Dark Green"} then
                              set fill color of item k of theList to {cyan:0.0, magenta:100.0, yellow:0.0, black:0.0}
                    end if
          end repeat
end tell
But this script obviously doesn't work. From what I can tell, the fill color simply returns the tint of the item, not the name of it. I can't find anything that returns the name of a spot color so I can set the correct corresponding color. In the above example, I made the color obviously changed so I could visually see the result.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm a first time poster here.
Thanks!

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
          tell current document
                    set theList to every path item
                    set sw to every swatch
                    repeat with i from 1 to count of sw
                              set swname to name of item i of sw
                              if swname = "Dark Green" then
                                        set swco to color of item i of sw
                                        repeat with k from (count of theList) to 1 by -1
                                                  set co to fill color of item k of theList
                                                  if swco = co then
                                                            set fill color of item k of theList to {cyan:0.0, magenta:100.0, yellow:0.0, black:0.0}
                                                  end if
                                        end repeat
                              end if
                    end repeat
          end tell
end tell

Getting Used Spot Colors in a Color Legend on MAC JS or Applescript

Hello again:
I've been looking around for a script that will take the used spot colors in a document and place them in a predetermined spot. I've came across several posts about this, such as the COLOR CHIPPER although I think it's focus was on swatches, but it's kind of confusing me. What is confusing is the part of making New CMYKColor or RGB or if I even need to do that. I've looked at other posts and the Adobe docs, but none seem to help. Adding the text isn't difficult, it's getting these spot colors to reflect what's in the document that is. From what I'm seeing now:
I may have to use some other type of script such as Applescript to get rid of unused swatches first throught the actions panel, but I'm not sure.
I could possibly use the getByName method to call out the specific rectangle and the and relative callout with the appropriate color instead of having to position everytime.
I'm going to keep working on it, but if anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate it. Thanks

Hi,
I like to use this script.
Please share it to me.
My email ID: [email protected]
MOhan

Can't apply tint or spot color to graphic

I have a grayscale, 1-layer graphic in a layout that will not let me apply a tint or spot color.
I must be missing something basic here.
ID CS2

If there's any transparency, it won't work.
Otherwise, make sure you're doing this properly.
Select the graphic with the direct selection tool (white arrow) and then
apply the color or
Drag the color from the swatches panel onto the graphic.
Bob

Converting tif with clipping path to solid spot color CS3

There must be a better way to do this, I need to make an opaque white spot color overprint the silo'd 4/C image (this is for a window cling). In the past I would duplicate the tif, convert to grayscale, fill with black, duplicate the placed tif, re-link to the new grayscale tif and color it to the spot color. This works fine, but is there a way to simply duplicate the placed tif, delete the image and fill the path with a spot color? TIA

Absolutely. First copy the image and then paste in place. Right click and choose convert clipping path to frame. Delete the image from that frame and fill it with color.
Bob

How to make preflight profile witch find out if exist in document spot color with name "CutContour", if not show allert, I try many combinations but nothing works

How to make preflight profile witch find out if exist in document spot color with name "CutContour", if not show allert, I try many combinations but nothing works

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mozilla.cfg
<pre><nowiki>//
pref("privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown", true);
pref("privacy.sanitize.promptOnSanitize", false);
pref("browser.rights.override", true);
pref(“app.update.auto”, false);
pref(“extensions.blocklist.enabled”, false);
pref(“extensions.shownselectionUI”, true);
pref(“browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser”, false);
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pref(“toolkit.telemetry.prompted”, 2);
pref(“toolkit.telemetry.rejected”, true);
pref(“app.update.auto”, false);
pref(“browser.download.useDownloadDir”, true);
pref(“browser.search.update”, false);
pref(“signon.autofillForms”, false);
pref(“signon.rememberSignons”, false);
pref(“browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone”, true);
pref(“browser.formfill.enable”, false);
pref(“xpinstall.enabled”, true);</nowiki></pre>
channel-prefs.js
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[XRE]
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all-lmc.js
pref("general.config.filename", "mozilla.cfg");
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Applescript to change color of path items with specific swatch from swatch group, multiple times

I am attempting to take a path item that is on its own layer and change its color multiple times, saving it each time.
I was able to do it with javascript however can't get it to work in applescript.
Javascript:
(Items are already selected that I intend to change.)
var iL = app.activeDocument.pathItems.length;
var colorSwatches = app.activeDocument.swatchGroups.getByName('newColors');
var allColors = colorSwatches.getAllSwatches();
var colorNames = Array();
for (var i = 0; i < allColors.length; i++){
    colorNames.push(allColors[i].name);
for (x = 0; x<colorNames.length; x++)
        var currentColor = allColors[x].name;
        for (i=0; i<iL; i++)
            var myItem = app.activeDocument.pathItems[i];
            if(myItem.selected)
                myItem.fillColor = app.activeDocument.swatches.getByName(currentColor).color;
(I then go on to save each one)
When trying to cross over into applescript I have the following so far:
               set iL to count every path item of document 1
               set colorSwatches to swatchgroup "newColors" of current document
               set allColors to get all swatches colorSwatches
               set swatchCount to count every item in allColors
               repeat with i from 1 to swatchCount
                    set currentSwatch to item i of allColors
                    repeat with x from 1 to iL
                        set myItem to path item i of document 1
               here is where I have no idea what I am doing... I can't figure out how to test if an item is selected
                        if myItem's has selected artwork is equal to true then
                            set fill color of myItem to {swatch:currentSwatch}
                        end if
                    end repeat
               end repeat
Or better yet is there a way I can select every path item of a layer and change its color that way?
Something like the following:
          set fill color of every path item of layer "art" of document 1 to {swatch:currentSwatch}
Thanks for any input!

I'm throwing it into a Applescript OBJc project I am working with. I currently have it in a javascript file within the actual project however this is the slowest part of my project and I'm going to attempt to speed it up some.
Let's say I'm changing the color of a path item 35 times... this starts to eat a ton of time up.
My applescript save illustrator file as jpeg is much faster than the javascript one for some reason...
It's also something I have needed to do numerous times in the past and never got around to asking.

Draw rectangle and apply fill color

Hi
anyone help me to draw rectangle outside artboard and apply fill color
i want to draw 10 rectangle of same size and apply fill color using javascript
Thak you
appu

Now that I am addressing the path items and text items of the group separately I am having some success. Now I am having difficulty getting the correct terms for assigning a Spot Color to the file. Here is a piece of the script.
This works:
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
set openDoc to document 1
set ftClr1 to (first group item whose note is "Front3") of openDoc
set ftClr1Paths to path items of ftClr1
repeat with thisPath in ftClr1Paths
set fill color of thisPath to {red:255}
end repeat
set textFrames to text frames of ftClr1
repeat with thistext in textFrames
set fill color of every line of thistext to {red:255}
end repeat
end tell
Need help to set the fill color to a Spot Color that already exists in Swatches.
Thanks
Nick

Converting from a spot color to a color for a RGB document?

How can I take a spot color from the Pantone Swatches Library and convert it for use in a RGB document? Thanks.

kat,
You may:
1) Click the Pantone Swatch, or a path to which it is applied;
2) Switch to RGB (for RGB, CMYK for CMYK) in the Color palette/panel, and ;
3) Click New Swatch in the Swatches palette/panel flyout, see that Color Type says Process Color, give it its name (and make it Global if relevant), and press OK.
With that you will have the corresponding RGB colour (closest match) as a swatch.

Text reflow when converting from rgb spot color to process black

The setup that I'm using is a G5 Mac OSX, version 10.4.11. The InDesign application is CS3, version 5.0.3. The fonts are loaded into Extensis Font Reserve, server 1.7.4. The InDesign document has a text box using 2 different font sets. One set, Helvetica Neue, uses the rgb spot color. The other one, a mixed set of New Century Schoolbook, is used for a paragraph which is process black. When deleting the rgb spot color from the swatches and converting it to process black, the New Century Schoolbook reflows which had already been process black.
If I just select the Helvetica Neue type and change that line to process black there is no reflow problem.
When I tried this document on another Mac with the same set up there was no reflow. Is this an InDesign preference problem? Thanks

If you change the color back and then back again, do you get more reflows?
The reason I ask is that when InDesign opens a document, it holds the existing composition of stories until you apply any edit. So, it could be that what you're seeing here is that yours and your user's setups are different enough that reflow is inevitable the moment you edit the text, and changing the color counts as editing.
Dave

Should the print company I use be able to change a file to spot color for me?

I recently sent a document in to a major print company to have a folder printed. The document was created in Illustrator using only two colors. They said they could not print it because it was still more than two colors and that I needed to change it to a two color document using Pantone Spot Color.
I've never had to do that for a print company before but I've also never had a two color project before. I opened the file back up and selected my objects and "recolored" the work and deleted all the swatches aside from the two colors I needed that were now Pantone Spot Color (HSB). It literally took me 2 minutes.
The reason I am asking is because they pretty much said that I don't know what I'm doing, which to a designer is completely insulting. We all do new things from time to time but that is an insult. Shouldn't they, a large print company with years of experience, know how to do this for me? They had the original design file.. Maybe they don't know what they are doing?
Any clarity on as to why I needed to do it and not them is greatly appreciated. Also.. any direction as the best way to use spot color over cmyk is appreciated too.

...which to a designer is completely insulting...
What's so special about "a designer"?
Prior to the mid 1980s, designers could get away with prima Donna attitudes, because they (or their employers) were paying pre-press "color houses" around $350 per hour to tweak colors to sooth their oh-so-erudite discernment and hyper-developed color sensitivities, and to gain reimbursement for the $100 per plate lunches on proof-check days.
That all changed when designers (and their employers) got tired of paying those fees and took on the responsibility for the technical side of assembling their designs into something printable. That was the so-called "desktop revolution" and "revolution" was not a bad word for it. It turned a huge industry on its head. Color houses which didn't adopt PostScript devices and workflows were soon dropping like flies--and so were designers who didn't climb down off their lofty pedestals and buckle down to learning the technical realities of what they were doing.
Don't be insulted, but the simple fact is, you still don't know what you're doing if you think converting any given process color job to a two-spot job is "just a couple of minutes' work." Only in the very simplest designs would it be as simple as re-defining a couple of process Swatches as spot color Swatches.
In Illustrator in particular, doing so won't even work if the original Swatches were not originally defined as Global Swatches.
If those two process Swatches were used in any Blends, converting them to spot will likely not update the intermediate steps of the Blend. In earlier versions of Illustrator, the same problem applied to grads.
You can often get away with not having properly trapped the file with process swatches, because there are potentially four component inks which may be shared between adjacent different-color objects. Spot inks are not so forgiving. Trapping is essential if the two spot colors touch.
So you really expect a printer to just have a policy to do that for you? And thereby bear responsibility for anything they may misinterpret or overlook that may cause a registration sliver on press and thereby loose every bit of profit on the printing (which these days is cut-throat competitive)?
No. It's your responsibility to build the file correctly. The printing houses I use know better. They know I would have a coniption fit if I ever caught them modifying one of my files. They know they are to return any problem file to me for correction.
JET

Applescript: Applying spot colors to existing paths...

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