InDesign Scripting In Python?
Scripting in InDesign is used to automate a wide variety of repetitive task or as complex as an entire new feature. It is one of the most powerful features in InDesign. It can save lots of time: almost anything you can do with the user interface, you can do with scripts, and there are even a few things you can do in scripting that you cannot do from within the user interface. Scripting is also a good way to do accurate placing and to repeat the same action dozens, hundreds, or thousands of times.
But why Python?
InDesign scripting officially supports JavaScript, AppleScript & VBScript and the Scripting SDK ships with tutorials and guides for each of those supported Scripting language. However, Scripting in Python is also fairly easy if not easier if you’re already comfortable with Python. You may have already heard that Python is gaining in popularity, but did you know it’s now the most popular introductory programming language in U.S. universities? Python is also cross platform just like JavaScript is and lately becoming one of the fastest growing programming language according to StackOverflow as of September 2017
Python is easy to use, powerful, and versatile, making it a great choice for beginners and experts alike. Python’s readability makes it a great first programming language — it allows you to think like a programmer and not waste time understanding the mysterious syntax that other programming languages can require.
InDesign COM & DOM
InDesign can be scripted through COM(Component Object Model). Its DOM(Document Object Model) is the same when accessing it through either its own JavaScript engine or Python or any other scripting language. InDesign exposes it’s scripting DOM as a Type Library file at the time of application startup. This is because all the scripting methods available in the DOM is provided by the individual scriptable Plug-Ins. Those Plug-Ins could be the stock Plug-Ins that ships with InDesign or any other third party Plug-Ins which as installed in the Plug-Ins directory. The type library file is written out during application launch at C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\<Version>\en_US\Caches\Scripting Support\<Version>\Resources for Visual Basic.tlb
Python allows you to access COM and it’s DOM with the help of a Python extension called “Python Win32 Extensions”, for more details check https://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/
However, in order to install this extension, you have to manually download and link to your existing Python installation which can be cumbersome. Instead, there is now a version of pywin32 on PyPI that can be installed with pip. It is called pypiwin32, and it installs the package using the binary wheel format.
pip install pypiwin32
Hello World!
import win32com.client
app = win32com.client.Dispatch('InDesign.Application.CC.2017')
myDocument = app.Documents.Add()
myPage = myDocument.Pages.Item(1)
myTextFrame = myPage.TextFrames.Add()
myTextFrame.GeometricBounds = ["6p0", "6p0", "18p0", "18p0"]
myTextFrame.Contents = "Hello World!"More Example/Demo Scripts?
Check Github repository for more example script https://github.com/lohriialo/indesign-scripting-python
