Scripting charts in illustrator

I work in the graphics department at the Financial Times. As you might imagine we generate a large amount of basic charts. We have a custome written javascript plugin called Ilex that takes an excel spreadsheet and given variables such as single column line or bar chart will spit out an illustrator file drawn and sized to our house style. Its a fantastic little program that does the job quickly and saves us hours.
However as Excel have changed their file formats and some other OS updatea mean that we can't upgrade to the new excel and Mac OS without having large bits of Ilex re-written. As you can now use javascript diectly in illustrator it would be much more efficient if we could use this ability rather than something spanning two programs. I'm just looking into this and it immediatly throw up some questions.
1. How accesable is the charting engine to scripting in illustrator?
2. The illustrator charting engine is pretty basic, especially in this age of information design. Is it due for an overhaul? If so does anyone know if this is going to happen any time soon as I don't want to embark on a project that becomes redundant the day I get it up and running.
3. Can you access the basic chart colours and change them. By this I mean when you create say a bar chart the bars are black by default. Can i make it so they are a specific colour by default and not have to change them after the bar has been drawn. Similar with line colours and line weights, pies etc
4. Can Illustrator deal with log scale? quite an important one this.
I know it a bit of a nich discussion, but I'd appreciate any imput, especially from Adobe. Happy to work with them on overhauling the graphing engine.
Thanks
Bob

Hi Bob,
1. access is very limited, you only have access to the chart itself as an object, to move, size, etc. There's no access to the Data or the Chart Objects themselves.
2. it's been needing a complete Overhaul for 20+ years. Nobody knows if Adobe is ever going to update the Charting features.
3. No, not possible to access the Chart Objects or Data
4. I'm not sure what log scale is, but I would guess, No.

Similar Messages

  • Copy Excel charts into Illustrator?

    Hi All-
    I NEED to get charts that I have created in Excel (Microsoft Excel 2008 for MAC, Version 12.1.1) into Adobe Illustrator (CS2, 12.0.1).
    I have hundreds of charts to do this with, so remaking all of the charts in Illustrator isn't really feasible. In addition, I must include error bars which I don't think Illustrator is able to do.
    I also need high resolution images (which I why was told I have to use Illustrator in the first place) that are publication quality.
    PLEASE HELP - I have been spending hours trying to find a way to do this and have been unsuccessful.
    Thanks everyone,
    jenn

    Mac OSX 10.5.7  CS4  Excel 2004 / but Excel-to-.ai worked with older configurations, too.
    My work involves scientific journal illustrations, some of which come from Excel graphs. Once I have the graphs in Illustrator, I 'clean them up' -- as was mentioned on the Forum: Excel comes in with lots of repeated lines and icky rotated text blocks.
    I understand a problem might exist with MS versions, etc. -- so --
    I don't know if these little tricks will help your situation, or not, but this is what works for me.
    I Open a blank RGB Illustrator page and shift it over to the right on the monitor.
    Then I Open the Excel file with the graph and shift it over to left on the monitor -- so I can see both pages, I select the Excel graph by clicking on it once, making sure that I have the outermost 'Excel selection handles (black squares) selected, then I verrry sloooowwly move the Excel graph over to the Illustrator page with my mouse. You DO need some patience on this step: it needs to be done slowly and when you get to the Illustrator page you must (still) hold the mouse there for a while, until it copies over. The more 'lines' in the Excel graph, of course, the longer it takes. approx. 10 seconds, or so, for lots of data.
    Once over in Illustrator, I discard all the extra lines and 'retype' any Excel-rotated text. Excel seems to put rotated text in a bit-map piece -- with the real (unrotated) text included nearby as a copy. I find the good copy (a few steps) and redo it so it 'reads correctly,' and toss the 'icky-bitmap/pixelated-rotated-text-block' that came from Excel.
    I was so frustrated when some Excel graphs just would not 'move over' to my blank Illustrator page. Excel graphs are given to me from a variety of clients: some would copy, some would not. I finally discovered the problem -- and -- it starts with Excel. The Excel-to-Illustrator step would fail IF patterns were used in the Excel graphs. Once I changed any/all Excel-pattern-fills to shades of gray one-by-one (or color, probably ? [not tested by me yet]), I could then move graphs over to Illustrator just fine. Other 'Excel properties' may cause copy-failure also, perhaps? Just look around at the graph in Excel: even a pattern in a key/legend may be the culprit that causes failure in the transfer/move.
    SciDot

  • How to create legislative seating chart with illustrator?

    What is procedure to create a legislative seating chart with illustrator. Examples of such charts are as follows:
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/11th_Parliament_National_Assembl y_Kenya.svg/360px-11th_Parliament_National_Assembly_Kenya.svg.png
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/14thNationalAssemblyOfPakistan.s vg/512px-14thNationalAssemblyOfPakistan.svg.png
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/House_of_the_People%2C_India%2C_ 2012.svg/360px-House_of_the_People%2C_India%2C_2012.svg.png
    Please help me. Would be thanful if someone tells me.
    HELP!

    One thing to note before you can add a stroke to the circles after the compound path has been released you will have to once again go to object>expand, I do not know why but it is necessary.
    Some screen shots to help you along.
    Also you actually need to make it seven concentric dividers not eight.
    In this screen shot one of the stroke circles is selected so you can see in the stroke panel the center option for the alignment is active that is the one ou need of course.
    Also I am sorry I forgot to spell check in my original posting. So you will probably have to use your imagination…quite a lot.

  • Actions loaded in script via in illustrator

    Dear Friend,
    i am having some actions(*.aia), those actions loaded in script via in illustrator. please help me.
    By,
    Seenuvasaragavan B

    help with what?
    You have not described any issues.
    Be aware, there's a bug in Ai which removes all scripts within actions as soon as Illustrator quits (exits). Actions will not retain script steps.

  • Microsoft Excel (2007) Charts in Illustrator CS2

    In the past I was able to take any charts from Microsoff Excel 2003 - select them, copy them, and paste them into CS2.  The company recently upgraded to 2007 as a stepping stone to 2010. Now when I copy charts they either come over as a rasterized image or all of the fonts get changed to "Small Fonts" and all of the kerning and spacing is messed up. I have tried PDFing them and that works to a certain extent, but the graphs from Excel come over as rasterized images - no good for me. I need to be able to modify the charts as needed in Illustrator.
    Thanks for any help!

    I tried to replicate your problem, not having CS2, I tried 2003 to CS5 and 2007 to CS4 and it worked ok in both cases. In excel you can copy data or chart as pictures but it is not the default behavior, try pasting inside excel in another sheet, to see if it is still editable, if it isn't probably it is being copied as picture.

  • Copy Excel Chart into Illustrator: Problem with dotted lines

    Copying an excel chart (2010 and/or 2013, Windows 7 Ultimate) to Illustrator CS6 works okay if line chart lines are solid... but if they are dotted, then in Excel 2010, the dotted line becomes jumbled, and in Excel 2013, the dotted line converts to a solid line... is the only solution to this to save the exel chart as a pdf, or is there another workaround?
    Essentially, I am creating a chart in excel and adding a few notations and graphic elements in illustrator for professional publishing...
    any help would be appreciated... thanks

    This is a follow-up (somehow, my original question was logged under OOBIMICHAEL):
    I finally broke down and bought a MacBook Pro, installed CS6 and Office 2011... and voilà... dotted lines copy from excel to illustrator just perfectly... this is a bit like copying data from Visio to Word, etc... these programs render graphics in very different ways... other than the Mac solution, I also tried the Libre Suite (open source)... which also worked perfectly to copy excel data with dotted lines to illustrator... so, until MS and Adobe actually collaborate together to provide value to its customers, the alternative seems (1) open source, (2) buy a Mac...

  • Scripting objects in Illustrator - JavaScript

    Hi i am new to use Javascript in Illustrator.
    I can create new layers easy :-)
    but i like to select objects with a specific fillcolor
    All those objects should be moves to a specific layer
    And have an other fillcolor.
    Is this possible with JavaScript
    if yes HOW
    Thanks

    Firstly to answer your question… Yes this is all possible using JavaScript… A tip for a scripting new comer… Don't confuse script with the GUI there is NO need to select objects in order to move or change them… It's generally better NOT too and only deal with selection when you want user defined input… It is far less simple with script you will need to check every item in the document and if it's color matches a set of values move it else leave where it is… Don't forget when you move objects from one container to another you may have to account for the order reversing…

  • OOTB script supplied with Illustrator CC does not work

    Hi everybody,
    I'm searching someone that could tell me how to use the scrpit supplied out-of-the box with Illustrator CC whose french name is "EnregistrerDocAuFormatSVG". As I have only a french version of the product, I do not know the english name. This script is supposed to export all opened files in Illustrator in SVG format in a suppplied folder.
    Each time I used it, the SVG that is done is not correct whereas the same operation I have done manually using "Save As..." is working. In other words, the SVG done manually is not the same as the SVG done using the script !!!
    So I think that there are some errors in the script or some missing configuration.
    Please help me solve this problem.
    I already post a french post for this problem, but it seems that the community is more english people...so I repost the post in english.
    I will also post the same post in "Scripting Illustrator forum", because I do not know which forum is the best to receive such a problem.
    Eric.

    Thanks you,
    Hi,
    I was just reading this part of reference guide when you answered to me.
    After some tries, I succeded modyfing the original script so that SVG is saved in a good way...
    But now my work is not finished: I need to automate this three steps in whatever way.
    I thought that the best way was to automate the processus of loading a file and running the script using automation...but even if the program is working, the result is not good (I do not understand why). When having a phone call with support technical team, I understood that whereas Illustrator permits to automate, this operation is not supported.
    So I have to find another way that is supported by Adobe to do the same thing as the automation function...
    I though that I could write a command line that could take a paramter (my input file I want to convert) and run Illustartor with some program line parameters.
    Is there some way to run a script after having open a file in Illustrator ?
    Eric.

  • How do I get to use my printer post script fonts in Illustrator and In Design

    I am running the CS2 Suite with Photo Shop, Illustrator, and In Design.  I have purchased a Xerox 8550 post script printer, and it comes with 40 really cool post script fonts. I know that Adobe uses the common files folder in program files to store the fonts, but it dosn't list the fonts that are resident in my printer.  Is there any way that I can tell the common files area that I have these resident fonts, if so, how?
    Thanks,
    Tom

    That would be up to the printer driver. When installed, it should create either a full set of PostScript fonts, a set of bitmap placeholder fonts or offer a way to manage fonts on the printer, including downloading them manually - if allowed. The driver is also the place where to look for font substitution rules. Double-check the manual/ help files for the printer, I'm sure it's explained somewhere...
    Mylenium

  • Scripts disappearing from Illustrator 3 action palette

    I'm starting to write some javascripts for Illustrator 3, Version 13.0.0.0.  (It's part of CS3, if I understand right).  I'm then turning the script into an action so I can assign a hotkey to it and because I wanted to deselect everything after the script runs, but the textFrame I changed selects itself after the script finishes.  Once I close illustrator and reopen it, the parts of the Actions that were scripts are gone, the rest is there.  If I save and load the actions, I get 'Some event has not been registered for action' errors, and the actions load without the scripts present.
    How can I keep the scripts from disappearing or easily replace them?
    If you feel up to it, how can I keep textFrames from selecting themselves after the script finishes running if I change their .contents, and is there a non-action way to hotkey a javascript?

    Scripts can't be inseted into actions permanently.
    On WIndows try and use system tools to assign shortcuts to scripts. Onthe Mac OS use Software like Spark.

  • Java scripts charts

    Hi
    I have imported the SDK extension components using eclipse and i am able to call  design studio using eclipse with the downloaded custom components.
    Now i want to know wheather i can use an existing line charts code used  by  java scripts.  The same charts can i import into eclipse by using the same java scripts and  i want to know whether these charts can be pulled in design studio like sdk components.  without creating the charts in design studio can we import the charts directly using eclipse and coding is done by java scripts and called by HTML.
    Rgds
    Ramesh

    Ramesh, Mustafa and I both gave you this answer already.  Again, yes you CAN write a chart library wrapper, assuming that it uses normal JavaScript techniques and you have a license that works for your usage.
    What you cannot "simply" do is just import the JavaScript library and it work without any further effort on the SDK developer's part.  You must manually map the imported library's specific properties which vary from API to API, as well as convert the datasource bindings from Design Studio SDK structure to something that the library you choose will accept.
    You are on your own in figuring that out, I don't know of a volunteer who will spell that out for you beyond explaining what we already have at a high level design concept.  If you need a head-start with some reusable example similar to maybe what you'd like to achieve, please read this blog post, and visit the source code link contained there to get a decent idea of the work ahead of you:
    Design Studio 1.2 SDK - An adventure in creating a data bound Chart Component wrapper

  • Hello, is there a site that describes the possibilties for bar charts in illustrator? and how to customize them?

    i want to influence the spacing between the bars.
    and i will have to do over 30, so im looking to
    do it with as much automatic work...
    Illustrator Help | Graphs

    Forget about automatic for any stuff related to Illustrator graphs.
    I would try and prepare a template file with everything you need.
    Then make copies and edit the numbers.

  • 3D Pie chart in Illustrator CS5

    1) Make a Pie graph with values 1,1,1,1.
    2) Go to 3D Extrude & Bevel Options
    3) Use default settings just change "Bevel" to "Classic"
    4) Press OK and watch your graph to f.ck up.
    Alternative:
    3) Use default settings just change "Bevel" to anything else then "None" or ""Classic"
    4a) Wait several minutes to get Illustrators favorite "out of RAM"
    4b) Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and kill Illustrator
    Seriously, Adobe, just select all the files regarding Illustrator, press shift+del and start all over...this software is fubared.

    Huh?

  • Creating charts in Indesign vs. Illustrator

    I'm asking more for opinions in this post. I have just upgraded from CS2 to CS3 today. I have a large yearly publication that has roughly 40 pie and bar charts in it. For the past three years I have created the charts in Illustrator and "edited" them from the previous year, rather than fully recreating it because the sizes remain basically the same, saves time, etc. I just change the colors and data and import the eps files into indesign.
    I am seeing that there is some sort of script for creating charts in Indesign (note that I am not knowledgeable on Scripts). Do you believe it to be better to create the charts in Illustrator and import them into Indesign or to create them directly in Indesign? I wouldn't want to get halfway into this huge project and realize the script could take twice as long OR not know that I could save tons of time by using the script.
    Any opinions are appreciated!
    Thanks! :)

    Thanks!!
    Questions:
    1. Are AI files transparent? I often have background photos on the page to lighten up the heavy data in the report so I don't want a white box around the chart.
    2. There won't be any problems importing an AI vs. EPS? I always assumed you couldn't import an AI file...that it needed to be converted. Not sure if that's my assumption or if I heard that somewhere along the line.

  • Copying chart from Excel to Illustrator

    The calibri font used for graphs in Excel are not recognized when the graphs are copied into Adobe Illustrator. Other than changing the font to arial or another font, does anyone know a workaround? I upgraded from CS4 to CS6 on my mac and I still get the same error, "An unknown shading type was encountered," and the letters in the chart get substituted with jumbled symbols. I've tried copy the chart directly from excel to illustrator as well as saving it as a pdf or postcript file and then opening in illustrator. But neither approach works.
    A friend managed to open the chart in Illustrator (CS5 on a mac) which gave the prompt that it cannot read the font and that it will display it as outlines. This worked and the text was displayed properly. But for some reason I never received this promopt whether using illustrator from CS4 or CS6.
    Thanks

    Here is a video!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3CJfBlZuW0
    Adobe illustrator CS3, M/S Excel 2003, HWP 2002(Korean Wordprocess),
    Macro Keyboard, script, Action ...

Maybe you are looking for