Indiscripts (InDesign Scripts and Gears) focuses on layout automation, scripting practice and plugins development in the context of Adobe® InDesign®.
A script engine can be thought as a namespace, or better as a memory cluster enjoying lexical scoping. Despite being a pretty informal description, this highlights that engines can both retain identifiers and data but do not work together (i.e. do not share their knowledge)… Every script runs in its own engine. The default engine has the name "main" (as revealed by $.engineName ) and is not…
L'entrée en vigueur de la facturation électronique obligatoire via « plateformes agréées » (boîtes privées de la mafia UE ) est une catastrophe pour les TPE, micro-entrepreneurs, free-lances, artisans ou petits commerçants de mon espèce… Depuis la création d' indiscripts il y a quinze ans, je facture électroniquement mes quelques ventes de licences logicielles via un processus sécurisé ,…
With its hundreds of interconnected features and its documentation erected in front of you like a Gothic cathedral, IndexMatic³ will undoubtedly inspire you with this fateful question: where to start? And we often start with something concrete, a specific problem that needs to be solved right now. The purpose of this page is to guide you quickly and clearly into the inner workings of the program,…
IdExtenso continues to evolve as the most comprehensive framework for InDesign/ExtendScript developers. Version 2.60324 brings significant enhancements across binary handling, compression, text processing, DOM utilities, and more… IdExtenso remains the go-to framework for serious InDesign scripting. With v2.60324, scripters gain more control over binary data, clipboard integration, and other…
Welcome back to a series that’s been quietly running since 2011 — yes, you read that right, fifteen years. Episode #13 dropped way back in June 2019, and honestly, we all thought that was the finale. But then something funny happened: the internet started forgetting things… Foreword. — The internet was supposed to be the library that never burns. Nobody told Adobe. As their systems evolve and…
In the fierce arena of graphic design, crafting a professional book cover can feel like a high-stakes puzzle — complex, time-consuming, and absolutely crucial. Enter HurryCover , your trusty sidekick in Adobe InDesign that’s been speeding up this process year after year. It’s packed with smart features that make each step a breeze, from setup to export, all while keeping printer and…
While implementing a bounding box system, I discovered — almost by accident! — an unexpected and remarkable property of operator overloading in ExtendScript. This post is technically dense, but the concepts explored are worth the cognitive effort... Our IdExtenso framework includes a tiny module called $$.ArrayAs2D , previously discussed here . Working with two-dimensional Array objects, this tool…
In a world where everything is evaporating, where no human collective seems strong enough to resist the constant deception, one ends up wondering where to turn, to whom to pray, with whom to build. I don't have the answer, but the least I can do is mention the rare islands of genuine solidarity. Creative Coding Collective , a community born from a Slack group of 700 Adobe developers and scripters,…
The latest version of IndexMatic (26-Dec-2025) fixes several bugs identified in the XML/IDML output layer. The typical error you might encounter was an internal XML error message (with some formatting settings) or the dialog box freezing at 50% when generating the index in InDesign or IDMS form… We can never say it enough: the InDesign Markup Language format is a little gem for all InDesign…
The introduction of Flex Layout in InDesign 2026 represents a significant evolution in the scripting DOM architecture. Unlike traditional container objects, FlexObject entities operate at the same hierarchical level as fundamental layout containers ( Spread and MasterSpread ) while exhibiting behavioral patterns similar to Group and MultiStateObject , but with dynamic layout capabilities inspired…
Sometimes, the most interesting development stories begin with a simple email from an unexpected corner of the world. This summer brought one such adventure with SmartSort , our language-aware paragraph sorting script for InDesign… In July 2025, John Bishop, a Toponymist working for the Cree Government in northern Quebec, reached out with an intriguing request. He was working on a Cree dictionary…
Gone are the days of manually parsing bytes and wrestling with endianness! ByteStream (a powerful addition to the IdExtenso framework) introduces a declarative format string syntax that lets you read complex binary structures in a few lines of code. Whether you're extracting metadata from font files or parsing proprietary formats, ByteStream transforms hours of painstaking byte manipulation into…
So you use IndexMatic³ regularly, at cruising speed, but do you know the more secret features that no one ever told you about? Take advantage of the summer to give yourself a crash course on increased productivity. Hidden tools, shortcuts, and little-known tricks: here are our top 10… ⚡ Click on each animation to see all the details. 1. Quickly Adjust the Sorting Language When opening the dialog…
In the first part of this paper, we explored the basics of MathML and how it's incorporated into InDesign's Math Expressions panel. For script developers working with ExtendScript and/or UXP, the underlying SVG structure requires further investigation. This will lead us to intriguing issues and potential challenges… Scripting DOM: Changes and Additions It is uneasy to trace the changes made to the…
Several users have reported that they fail to update SmartSort when a new version arrives. They have downloaded the latest JSX file from this website, replaced the previous one in their Scripts Panel folder, restarted InDesign, but the script dialog box still appears as it did in the previous release and the version number is not up to date in the title bar. So what is going on? This is a typical…
InDesign does not always show the hidden characters when you ask it to Show Hidden Characters ! Why? Because the active document window may then be in some preview Screen Mode that prohibits the appearance of invisible characters. It's a bit silly, but that's how it is. Well, that's how it was until today. A simple startup script will solve this little paradox… Update (15-Feb-25). Major…
Preamble This is not InDesign's first brush with the realm of AI. The application already has Firefly-powered generative features like Text to Image and Generative Expand. In addition, script developers have not been slow to build bridges with existing AI systems — see for instance OpenAI for InDesign from Roland Dreger . What's new with MATE — a mind-blowing extension released by Eugen Pflüger —…
As a developer or InDesign scripter, you know how important it is to stay up-to-date on the latest changes and issues affecting your work. Here we'll tackle an obscure, low-level issue affecting InDesign 20.1 on macOS… Until recently, the low-level ExtendScript method Folder.prototype.create() worked reliably across all platforms, creating entire folder paths from scratch. With a simple line of…
Claquos 3.x for InDesign offers nearly a hundred themes, all customizable, to adjust your pie charts to your document colors. It's more than spoiled for choice! Now, if you need to quickly pick a theme for a demonstration or project, here is a small selection of the most satisfying assortments in terms of balance and contrast. 1. Bovary Sober, well-accentuated, the Bovary theme blends ideally into…