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Many, many times a day I have to add .5 to the width and length of a clipping mask to add bleed for printing. I really want to make this a key stroke or at least a action button. so I can click on the mask then the button.

The issue is when I record the action it doesn't record +.5 it records "Scale width to 5555 pt"

Is there a way to get around this or is this a script?

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  • Yes but its not possible to bind the script to a shurtcut/button easily without needing to record it again every session.
    – joojaa
    Oct 27 '15 at 11:30
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Script could look like this.

#target illustrator

var sel  = activeDocument.selection;
var RU = activeDocument.rulerUnits;
activeDocument.rulerUnits = RulerUnits.Points;

for(var i = 0; i < sel.length; i++){
    if(sel[i].typename == "PathItem"){
        sel[i].width+=0.5;
    }
}
activeDocument.rulerUnits = RU;

Making this a shortcut and a button that will be easily accessible from session to session, is another ballgame... It can be done but its quite convoluted.

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  • @JasonDennis As joojaa implies, illustrator doesn't quite support setting a a hotkey to launch a script, but there are ways to do it. In mac setting a script hotkey is easy ( Automator ). In windows, the only way I know is with Auto Hotkey, but I only know how to make it a global hotkey that can be triggered from any application. Not that I use illustrator in windows much or at all. Joojaa, you know a better way in windows by any chance?
    – Joonas
    Oct 27 '15 at 15:28
  • @Joonas you can reload your actions after load is fully done. It can be automatically done with a bit of c code. You can make tool windows so button is possible. You can call a batch script on target app hook.
    – joojaa
    Oct 27 '15 at 16:12
  • @Jason Maybe you already figured it out, but here's a video showing how to do set a hotkey for a script with automator. ––– I like to use Alfred for this type of stuff. Mostly because compared to automator, you get to have/set the hotkey in the same place where the macro lives. So it's easier to manage. So here's video on how you can do it with Alfred.
    – Joonas
    Oct 27 '15 at 19:52

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