Automated Bot for Illustrator: Corporate ID Card Generator

Automation

Illustrator

TypeScript

Introduction

As a Multimedia Engineer, I was contacted by a graphic designer working for an educational foundation that faced a significant challenge: to produce approximately 100 customized corporate cards in a limited time frame. The client needed to integrate variable data (names, countries and positions) into a pre-designed template, including the corresponding national flags. The manual process was tedious, error-prone and time-consuming.

Context of the project

The educational foundation required ID cards for its international staff, distributed in several countries. Each card had to include personalized information and the flag of the country of origin. The designer had an already approved aesthetic template, but lacked an efficient solution for mass customization.

Project objectives

Develop an automation bot for Adobe Illustrator that would process data from CSV files.
Generate approximately 100 personalized ID cards using the provided template
Optimize space by placing 4 cards per letter size page
Automatically position national flags according to each person's country
Significantly reduce production time and eliminate manual errors

Development process

I developed a custom script for Adobe Illustrator that:

Data import: The script efficiently extracts information from CSV files (names, countries and job titles).
Template integration: Automatically places personal data in predefined template locations
Graphic element positioning: Identifies and places the corresponding national flag according to each person's country
Space optimization: Strategically distributes four IDs per letter-size sheet to maximize resources
Automated generation: Processes the entire batch of ID cards without additional manual intervention

Script code used:

// Script para generar escarapelas personalizadas según la plantilla de fundación educación desde un archivo CSV

// Configuración de las escarapelas
var CONFIG = {
    escarapelaAncho: 90.166,  // mm
    escarapelaAlto: 130.034,  // mm
    escarapelasPorHoja: 4,    // 2x2
    altoHoja: 279.4,            // mm (Tamaño Carta)
    anchoHoja: 215.9,           // mm (Tamaño Carta)
    filasHoja: 2,
    columnasHoja: 2,
    margenHoja: 10,           // mm
    rutaCSV: "D:\\Datos\\escarapelas.csv"
};

// Función para convertir mm a puntos (unidad de Illustrator)
function mmAPuntos(mm) {
    return mm * 2.83464567;
}

Results and conclusions

The implementation of the automation bot completely transformed the workflow:

Efficiency: What would have taken days of manual labor was completed in a matter of minutes
Accuracy: Common human errors in data entry and element positioning were eliminated.
Resource optimization: The provision of 4 cards per sheet significantly reduced material consumption.
Scalability: The solution can be easily adapted for future batches or upgrade of existing cards.

The designer's feedback was extremely positive, noting that the solution not only saved her countless hours of repetitive work, but also improved the visual consistency and overall quality of the final product. This project demonstrates how intelligent automation can optimize creative workflows without compromising design quality.