Adobe 65061456 Handbuch

ADOBE® ILLUSTRATOR® CS5

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS5

PROGRAMMER’S GUIDE

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Programmer’s Guide

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Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Terminology and notational conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Supporting documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Sample code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

What is a plug-in? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

A brief history of the Adobe Illustrator API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Anatomy of a plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Types of plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Action plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Plug-in file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Plug-in filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Plug-in menu commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Plug-in notifiers and timers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Plugin-group plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Plug-in tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Combining multiple plug-in types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Where plug-ins live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

What defines a plug-in? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

PiPL resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Plug-in management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Plug-in entry point and messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Message actions: callers and selectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Core message actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Reload and unload messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Start-up and shut-down messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Notifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Handling callers and selectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Message data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Illustrator API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Acquiring and releasing suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Publishing suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Binary compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Illustrator's artwork as seen by a plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Cross-platform support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Byte information and structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Helper classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Contents 4

Plug-in adapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

About Plug-ins menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Next steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2 Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

PiPL resource and plug-in entry point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Handling callers and selectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Using suites and callback functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Acquiring and releasing suites and calling suite functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Illustrator API suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Callers and selectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Caller: kSPInterfaceCaller, selector: kSPInterfaceStartupSelector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Caller: kSPInterfaceCaller, selector: kSPInterfaceShutdownSelector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Caller: kSPAccessCaller, selector: kSPAccessReloadSelector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Caller: kSPAccessCaller, selector: kSPAccessUnloadSelector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Plug-in type-specific messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Filter plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Tool plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Action plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Menu plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Next steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

3 Creating a Flash UI for Plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Creative Suite extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

About the Adobe Creative Suite SDK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Communication between plug-ins and extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Using the PlugPlug API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Using the CSXS API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Delivering a plug-in with a Flash UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Build and install the C++ plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Build the Flash extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Install the extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4 Plug–in Property Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

PiPL samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

PiPL structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Required PiPL properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Optional PiPL properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Export property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

For more information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Preface

This document introduces the Adobe® Illustrator® API for plug-ins.

XChapter 1, “Overview”describes the basic concepts behind Illustrator plug-in programming.

XChapter 2, “Tutorial”describes plug-in programming fundamentals using an example project.

XChapter 4, “Plug–in Property Lists”describes PiPL resources in detail.

Terminology and notational conventions

API — Application programming interface.

Application — Illustrator CS5, unless otherwise specified.

PiPL — Plug-in property list.

SDK — Software development kit for the application. <SDK> indicates your locally installed SDK root

folder. The actual root location depends on the installation and operating system.

Supporting documentation

The following documents are companions to this guide:

XGetting Started with Adobe Illustrator CS5 Development — Describes platforms supported for plug-in

development, how to set up the development environment, and the code samples included in the

SDK. Provides step by step guides on creating new projects either from scratch or from the templates

provided with the SDK.

XAdobe Illustrator CS5 Porting Guide — Describes issues related to porting plug-ins across different

versions of the Illustrator API. See <SDK>/docs/guides/porting-guide.pdf.

XAdobe Illustrator API Reference — Describes the suites and functions in the Illustrator API in detail. See

the <SDK>/docs/references/ folder.

XUsing the Adobe Text Engine with Illustrator CS5 — Describes how to use the Adobe text engine—the

text API provided by the Adobe® Illustrator® CS5 SDK—in your Illustrator plug-ins.

XAdobe Dialog Manager CS5 Programmer’s Guide — This document is included, but the Adobe Dialog

Manager has been deprecated in this release, and will not be supported in future releases.

Sample code

Sample plug-ins are provided in the sample code folder in the SDK, and described in Getting Started with

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Development . Chapter 2, “Tutorial,” describes plug-in programming fundamentals

using the Tutorial sample project.

1Overview

This chapter introduces the Adobe® Illustrator® plug-in architecture. It shows how plug-ins interact with

Illustrator and gives an idea of the power of plug-ins.

What is a plug-in?

A plug-in is a library that extends or changes the behavior of Illustrator. On Windows, a plug-in is built as a

DLL (dynamic-link library). On Mac OS, a plug-in is built as a bundle that contains a shared library.

The plug-in architecture in Illustrator is very powerful. Plug-ins have access to Illustrator’s elegant vector,

text, and raster engines, as well as Illustrator’s user interface. The API is a fundamental part of the

application; in fact, most of Illustrator itself is implemented as plug-ins.

You can create plug-ins that add new tools to the drawing, shading, and raster tools already in Illustrator.

Plug-ins can turn Illustrator into a powerful CAD, cartographic, or other custom design application. Users

can add or remove plug-ins to quickly and easily customize Illustrator to their needs.

The Illustrator API offers several benefits to plug-in developers. Because Illustrator handles large

application tasks like printing and saving files, you can concentrate on the implementation of your

plug-in’s unique features. Plug-ins do not need to support undo or window updating; these are handled by

the API and are invisible to the plug-in. This translates into shorter development cycles.

A brief history of the Adobe Illustrator API

The Illustrator API first appeared in version 5.0. It supported one type of plug-in, filters. This was extended

in Adobe Illustrator 5.5 to include file formats. The 5.x APIs displayed characteristics of many early API

design efforts: the interface was monolithic, incorporating enough function to achieve its intended

purpose, but not allowing for future expansion. A single callback function table was provided, with no

means to extend or update it. Platform abstraction was minimal, and interaction with the user was

restricted to modal.

The Illustrator 6.0 API began addressing these limitations. A modular and extensible approach was used to

export the application’s functionality. Callback functions were organized into suites that could be easily

replaced or extended. The plug-in types were abstracted and extended to include tools, floating windows,

menu items, events, and combinations of these types. The first steps towards platform abstraction were

taken.

The Illustrator 7.0 API refined prior efforts. The API was extended to be truly cross-platform (the Windows

version of Adobe Illustrator jumped from version 4.2 directly to 7.0), including a complete set of

user-interface suites. The plug-in management core was generalized for not only cross-platform, but also

cross-product use. More of Illustrator’s core functionality was implemented through plug-ins, allowing the

application’s behavior to change without modifying the application itself.

The most significant change in the Illustrator 8.0 API was the switch from fixed numbers to floating-point

numbers. All suites that used fixed parameters were updated to use floating-point parameters; in some

cases, Adobe changed function names to reflect this. The Illustrator 8.0 API also included more than a

dozen new suites, many corresponding to new user features like plug-in groups, cursor snapping, and

actions.

CHAPTER 1: Overview Anatomy of a plug-in 7

Illustrator 9.0 in Mac OS stopped loading plug-ins containing Motorola 68K code. While early plug-in APIs

from Adobe would run 68K plug-ins from a PowerPC application or vice-versa, this mechanism was not

provided to Illustrator 9 plug-ins. Only plug-ins with the Illustrator 9 version information in the PiPL were

recognized and included in Illustrator 9’s initial start-up process; however, Illustrator 6 and 5.5 plug-ins

were supported by adapters.

The Illustrator 10.0 API changed API structures in Mac OS to use PowerPC alignment (four-byte aligned).

Earlier APIs used 68K alignment (two-byte aligned). Illustrator plug-ins in Mac OS had to be rebuilt with the

Illustrator 10 SDK, to be compatible with Illustrator 10. Illustrator plug-ins for Windows built with the

Illustrator 9 SDK or earlier were not affected and remained compatible with Illustrator 10.

NOTE: Originally, Illustrator was a 68K application. When Apple moved to the PowerPC platform, the

Illustrator API maintained 68K alignment for backward compatibility. This caused a small performance loss,

so the alignment was changed; this change broke backward compatibility.

Illustrator CS1 (Illustrator version 11.0) integrated a new text engine, the Adobe Text Engine (ATE). The text

API was revised completely. The text API from Illustrator 10.0 and earlier was obsoleted (AIText,

AITextFaceStyle, AITextPath, AITextRun, AITextStream, AITextStyle, etc.). The new ATE API

provided increased functionality and control over typography to Illustrator plug-ins (see IText and

ATESuites). This change broke backward compatibility. Illustrator plug-ins that used the obsolete text API

had to be rebuilt with the Illustrator 11 SDK and ported to use the new ATE API.

The Illustrator CS2 API (Illustrator version 12.0) introduced Unicode support. Unicode encoding should be

used for any strings displayed in the user interface. In Mac OS, the object-file format for Illustrator plug-ins

changed to Mach-O. The old format was PEF, a preferred executable format. Moving forward, Mach-O is

Apple’s preferred object-file format for the Mac OS X platform.

The Illustrator CS3 API (Illustrator version 13.0) introduced support for universal binary plug-ins in Mac OS.

Universal binaries run in Mac OS computers using PowerPC or Intel microprocessors and deliver optimal

performance for both architectures in one package. The Apple Xcode development tool is the most

convenient way to produce universal binaries; therefore, Adobe switched to Xcode from CodeWarrior for

the development of Illustrator CS3 plug-ins.

The Illustrator CS4 API (Illustrator version 14.0) introduced support for multiple artboards and the FXG file

format, among other things. The multiple-artboards feature has been requested by many Illustrator users.

The FXG file format improves support for integrated designer-developer workflows and paves the way for

closer interaction between Illustrator and XML-based applications.

In Illustrator CS5 API (Illustrator version 15.0) the most significant change is that Adobe Dialog Manager

(ADM) has been deprecated. It is recommended that you replace any UI based on ADM with one based on

Adobe Flash® and Flex®-based controls, or another 3rd-party or platform-specific UI framework; see

Chapter 3, “Creating a Flash UI for Plug-ins for more infomation. This release also introduces a new suite for

working with the new Beautiful Strokes feature, and many existing features, such as perspective grids,

have been improved or enhanced. For documentation on these changes and other API changes, see the

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Porting Guide.

Anatomy of a plug-in

Like most programs, Illustrator plug-ins contain both code and data. The Illustrator plug-in manager loads

and executes a plug-in’s code when required, sending various messages to the plug-in. The plug-in

manager also unloads plug-ins that are no longer needed. See the following figure.

CHAPTER 1: Overview Types of plug-ins 8

Plug-ins are notified by Illustrator when they have just been loaded or are about to be unloaded,

permitting them to restore or save any state information.

Types of plug-ins

This section describes the different types of Illustrator plug-ins you can create. A single plug-in file can

contain multiple plug-in types. For example, a shape creation plug-in may implement several plug-in

filters and a plug-in tool. Plug-in types are listed in the following table and described more fully after the

table.

Adobe

Illustrator

Plug-in manager

Required

plug-ins

Additional

plug-ins

Plug-in Type What it does

Action Playback or register actions.

Effects Add menu items to the Effects menu.

File format Add file types to the Open, Save, and Export commands.

Filter Add menu items to the Filter menu.

Menu command Add menu items to the general menu structure.

Notifier Receive and process art-state events.

Plugin group Maintain “display” art that is associated with another art object

Suite Implement and publish your own suite of callback functions.

Timer Receive periodic notification.

Tool Add tools to the Tools panel.

Transform again Set the transform-again feature.

CHAPTER 1: Overview Types of plug-ins 9

Action plug-ins

Action plug-ins are used to execute Illustrator commands. An action plug-in can register itself so it can be

recordable via the Actions panel. For more information, see AIActionManagerSuite in Adobe Illustrator

API Reference.

Plug-in file formats

Plug-in file formats are used to extend the number of file types Illustrator can read and write. Plug-ins

indicate which file formats they support during initialization, specifying the supported names and file

types (or extensions). One plug-in can register as many formats as desired.

The file types supported by a file-format plug-in can appear in Illustrator's Export, Save, and Open dialogs,

depending on the options specified when the new file type is added.

For more information, see AIFileFormatSuite in Adobe Illustrator API Reference

Plug-in filters

Plug-in filters appear under the Object menu and are used to create or manipulate Illustrator artwork.

Typically, filters present a modal interface to the user, who can set parameters before executing.

NOTE: In other applications (including Adobe PageMaker® and Adobe FrameMaker®), the term “filter” or

“filter plug-in” sometimes is used to describe software that reads and writes non-native files (e.g., TIFF or

JPEG files). In Illustrator, these are called file-format plug-ins. Illustrator uses the term “filter plug-in” in a

way similar to Adobe Photoshop: a filter plug-in modifies the artwork in an algorithmic fashion.

Illustrator updates the Repeat and Undo menus automatically, making filters one of the simplest plug-in

types to create.

For more information, see AIFilterSuite in Adobe Illustrator API Reference.

NOTE: AIFilterSuite is deprecated in favor of AILiveEffectSuite. We recommend that you change

plug-ins which implement filters to use live effects instead, as AIFilterSuite will be removed at some

point in the future.

Plug-in menu commands

Plug-in menus are used to add menu items to Illustrator's menu structure other than the Filter menu. A

typical use of this plug-in type is to add a Hide/Show Window menu item to Illustrator's Window menu.

Plug-in menu commands can be added at several places in the menu structure.

For more information, see AIMenuSuite in Adobe Illustrator API Reference.

Plug-in notifiers and timers

Plug-in notifiers and timers are used by a plug-in to have Illustrator inform it of certain events.

A notifier plug-in is notified when the state of an Illustrator document changes. For example, a plug-in may

request to be notified when the selection state changes. A notifier plug-in registers for one or more

notifications during start-up.

CHAPTER 1: Overview Where plug-ins live 10

A timer plug-in is notified at regular time intervals. For example, a timer plug-in may request to be notified

once a second.

For more information, see AINotifierSuite and AITimerSuite in Adobe Illustrator API Reference.

Plugin-group plug-ins

Plugin-group plug-ins maintain one or more plug-in groups. A plug-in group is a special art object that

contains editable art as well as art that is displayed but not editable. A plugin-group plug-in is responsible

for regenerating the display art (or result art) whenever there is a change in the edit art. Plug-in groups are

used to make special art types like Live Blends and Brushes.

For more information, see AIPluginGroupSuite in Adobe Illustrator API Reference.

Plug-in tools

Plug-in tools add an icon to the Tools panel, expanding the number of tools available to the user. Many

standard Illustrator tools, including the knife tool, shape tools, and twirl tool, are implemented as plug-in

tools.

When selected, a tool plug-in can track the mouse, determine which artwork was selected, and act on it.

For example, a tool might create or distort objects. Some things are handled automatically for plug-in

tools, like scrolling the window.

For more information, see AIToolSuite in Adobe Illustrator API Reference.

Combining multiple plug-in types

As mentioned before, it is likely one plug-in file implements multiple plug-in types. A plug-in also may

need to add multiple instances of a single plug-in type. The plug-in API supports both these cases.

Where plug-ins live

Illustrator's Plug-ins folder is in the following locations:

Windows: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS5\Plug-ins\

Mac OS: /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5/Plug-ins/

A user-specific Plug-ins folder, which may be appropriate to use in multi-user systems, is located as

follows:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings\<localeCode>\Plug-ins\

Windows Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\

Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings\<localeCode>\Plug-ins\

Mac OS /Users/{username}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/

Adobe Illustrator CS5/<localeCode>/Plug-ins

Optionally, an additional folder can be specified using Illustrator's Additional Plug-ins Folder preference.

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