How to apply a random font to a textbox by scripting InDesign?

Question

I want to choose a random font from my installed fonts and apply it to a text box. I am using basil.js to facilitate coding.

I don't want to write a list of all available fonts by myself, like this:

var font = [];
font[0] = "Times New Roman";
font[1] = "Myriad Pro";
font[2] = "Impact";
b.textFont( font[Math.floor(Math.random()*font.length)] );

(this idea is from: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/325180)

Many Thanks!

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 03 '13 at 13:06

Does your basil.js play nice along with ID's native Extendscript? If so, you can use this:

var allFonts = app.fonts.everyItem().getElements();
b.textFont( allFonts[Math.floor(Math.random()*allFonts.length)] );

The first line accesses the live app.fonts object in InDesign, and since this is slow I prefer to use the everyItem().getElements() trick to 'convert' it to a static array first. Typically you would do this only once, near the start of your script.

Yes, Extendscript and basil.js play nice. Thus, this works. Thanks a lot. — j____r___, Oct 03 '13 at 13:39

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '13 at 15:52

in addition to Jongware's answer ... there is now also an example which does exactly that: https://github.com/basiljs/basil.js/blob/master/examples/typography/RandomFonts.jsx

#includepath "~/Documents/;%USERPROFILE%Documents";
#include "basiljs/bundle/basil.js";

function draw() {
  var textFramesCount = 20;
  var fonts = app.fonts;

  for (var i=0; i < textFramesCount; i++) {
    var posX = b.random(0,600);
    var posY = b.random(0,850);
    var randomFontSize = b.round(b.random(2,20));
    var randomIndex = b.floor( b.random(app.fonts.length) );
    var fontName = fonts[randomIndex].fullName;
    b.println(fontName);

    b.textSize( randomFontSize );
    b.textFont( fonts[randomIndex] );
    var textFrame = b.text(fontName+" "+randomFontSize, posX,posY, 300,20);
  };
}

b.go();

How to apply a random font to a textbox by scripting InDesign?

2 Answers2