Okay… I have been holding on to this tool for a few years and have always been “hush hush” about it’s hidden powers. But I see the greater good in sharing this now.
So here we go!
Scriptographer is a powerful open source plugin for illustrator that allows users to create their own Javascript interactive tools and scripts to enhance the power of Illustrator. No worries if you have no clue how to code Javascript (or what JS is) Scriptographer comes packed with tons of cool tools and their site has an archive full of downloadable scripts submitted by users.
Check out some of the things Scriptographer can bust out…
I won’t say I use it everyday, but it’s a great tool for experimental design and accidental awesomeness. Since it’s been in development for a while you can get support on both Windows and Mac from Illustrator 9 to CS5.
A lot of those tools look pretty cool. It’s also cool that they are trying to bring more openness to Illustrator.
If you haven’t already dropped your brick of cash on Illustrator, you might also try out Inkscape. Although it doesn’t have everything I saw in the video demo for Scriptographer, with it’s path effects, cloning, filters and tweak tool, it has many very similar tools built right in. If you’re used to Illustrator you can check out this guide for making the switch.
Alchemy is another open source vector drawing program with lots of interesting tools for experimenting with.
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
btw, I also ran across another new app that is similar to Scriptographer called NodeBox. Give it a look as well.
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
Thanks Kevin, I used to play around with that.. it’s actually a few years old. And it is more of a language based design tool, where scriptographer gives you tools to interact with.
If you looked at it a couple of years ago, I think that was version 1 which was very code oriented. Version 2 is in beta now and is a little higher level for the non-programming types, but not a lot. I guess I find it similar to Scriptographer which has Javascript algorithms to use, but now has higher level abstractions to help the non-programming types. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years it is much closer to Scriptographer.
Having algorithms integrated directly in tools is pretty cool in Scriptographer though.
Kevin
http://opensourcechurch.com
Um. Yes please.