Technology Services for the Publishing Industry
Try Our Software
Because the majority our work is spent automating Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, the software we write generally falls within these three categories:
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Scripts (and Extensions) for Adobe Products. We have written many scripts to automate Adobe's Creative Cloud (CC) applications. Script automation enhances workflows by reducing human errors and significantly reducing production time.
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Plug-Ins for Adobe Products. Sometimes scripts for CC applications are unable to perform the tasks needed tasks for a project. In most cases we can write a C++ plug-in to add the functionality to the CC application that we need.
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Applications. We write apps for all sorts of things. Sometimes we will write an app that compliments our scripts and plug-ins; and other times we write apps to do something on their own, such as PDF Comparator.
PDF Comparator
PDF Comparator
Our PDF Comparator application allows you to quickly and easily compare two PDF files to one another—visually or via a textual report.
Request a temporary license key to try a fully functional version of PDF Comparator for a limited time.
PDF Comparator is available for Windows and macOS.
Price: $195.00 (Free to try. Volume pricing available.)
How to Install Scripts:
Free Scripts & Extensions
Adobe InDesign and Illustrator Scripts/Extensions
One of the great things about Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, is their scriptability. We use InDesign and Illustrator scripting as part of many of our custom automation projects.
The time-saving scripts below are ones that we have written for friends, colleagues or just for fun. They are available here for free, but If you find any of them useful, and would like to encourage us to make more available in the future, please consider making a secure donation using the button below. Thank you!
Photo Flinger v1.0.4
Premedia Systems Photo Flinger is an Adobe InDesign extension designed to simplify the creation of photo book layouts that involve positioning images and/or text frames in consistent positions on the page.
Using Photo Flinger is as easy as selecting the desired layout (i.e., a grid with an equal number of rows and columns, one row with multiple columns, or one column with multiple rows). Then, select an image or text frame, and press one of the buttons to automatically size and position the frame in the selected position on the page. Rinse and repeat…
Photo Flinger supports InDesign versions 2020 through 2022.
Price: Free (macOS/Windows)
ID Text Unstyler [CreativePro Week 2018]
At the CreativePro 2018 conference in New Orleans, as part of the Scripting Challenge event (formerly called the “People’s Choice Script” event), attendees are asked to submit script ideas to the third-party (non-Adobe employee) developers attending the conference, in hopes that the developers will write the script. The scripts written for the event are made available for free to everyone.
A couple of attendees asked to create a script that removes all assigned paragraph and character styling applied to the text in an InDesign document, but to maintain all text styling as local formatting—in other words, all of the text keeps its formatting (font, bold, italic, etc.), but without having any paragraph or character styles applied. In addition, all existing paragraph and character styles will remain, without any modifications, in the document. ID Text Unstyler is that script!
The ID Text Unstyler script will work on macOS and Windows versions of Adobe InDesign CS3 and newer. Please see our InDesign Script Installation instructions for help installing the script.
Price: Free (macOS/Windows)
Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book Scripts
Sharon Steuer and the team of authors and artists that created the Peachpit Press book, “The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Book,” asked us to write a couple of
scripts for the CS5 version of the book to demonstrate some of the book's concepts .
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Artboard Resizer resizes all artboards in a document by a specified factor
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Artwork Colorizer automatically fills shapes with different colors.
Price: Free (macOS/Windows)
Shadow-Matic
This script will create an image “sandwich” with two copies of the same image, one on top of the other. The bottom image is set with a blending mode of “Multiply,” and the other—positioned on top of the first—is set with a blending mode of “Normal.” The two images are then grouped together.
The script takes a selected image, and displays a dialog box allowing you to select which layers and/or clipping paths to use for the shadow portion of the image, and which to use for the “normal” image.
Price: Free (macOS/Windows)
Sort Tabbed Paragraphs Script
To deal with a question in her popular “InQuestion” column in the Oct./Nov., 2011 issue of InDesign Magazine, noted author and trainer, Sandee Cohen, asked us to add some functionality to the “Sort Paragraphs” script which shipped with InDesign as one of the example scripts.
The original script sorts paragraphs based on the first word in the paragraph, however, Sandee had a need to sort paragraphs based on a particular “field” in a tab-delimited line.
For example, rather than “Alan<tab>Smith” sorting before “Joe<tab>Jones” this script will make it sort after if one specifies the sort to be done on the second “field” or “column.” (“Smith” comes after “Jones,” even though “Alan” comes before “Joe.”)
So, we modified the original script to add that functionality. Check it out…
Price: Free (macOS/Windows)
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In InDesign, open up the scripts panel using from the Window menu: Window > Utilities > Scripts. (In older versions of InDesign, you will find the Scripts panel lives here: Window > Automation > Scripts).
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Choose the folder into which you would like to install the script. Select the "User" folder to make the script available only to you. Select "Application" if you want to install the script for all users of the computer. (An administrator account for the computer is required when installing a script into the "Application" folder.)
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In the Scripts panel, right-click (control-click on Mac) the "User" or the "Application" folder that appears in the Scripts panel and then select "Reveal in Finder/Exporer" from the contextual menu.
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In macOS Finder or Windows Explorer, copy the script into the folder you selected.
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InDesign will now show the installed script in the Scripts panel. To run the script, double-click on the script's name in the panel.