Adobe Illustrator MCP

Recolour the targets with an Edit > Edit Colors command: convert to CMYK, RGB or grayscale, invert, or blend the fills between the frontmost and backmost (or leftmost and rightmost, topmost and bottommost) objects

Create a swatch group (a colour group in the Swatches panel), optionally moving existing swatches into it

Delete swatches by name

Add a swatch for each process colour used in the fills and strokes of the artwork (Swatches panel > Add Used Colors), skipping colours that already have one. Swatches are named the way Illustrator names them, e.g. "C=0 M=60 Y=100 K=0"

Change a swatch the way Swatch Options does (Swatches panel > Swatch Options): rename it, change its colour, or change its type between process, global process and spot. Changing a global or spot swatch's colour updates every object that uses it. Making a process swatch global or spot recreates it…

Duplicate swatches (Swatches panel > Duplicate Swatch). Each copy is named "<name> copy" (then "copy 2" and so on) and goes in the same swatch group; a global or spot swatch becomes a new global or spot colour and a gradient swatch a new gradient. Pattern swatches cannot be duplicated by script

Merge swatches into the first one named (Swatches panel > Merge Swatches): every fill, stroke, text colour and gradient stop that uses one of the other swatches is repainted with the first, then the others are deleted. A global or spot swatch is matched wherever it is used, keeping each use's…

List the swatches no artwork uses, as Swatches panel > Select All Unused finds them (a script cannot select swatches in the panel; delete them with delete_swatches). Scans the fills and strokes of every path and text character and the gradients in use; a process swatch counts as used when an…

No parameter schema on file.

Add the current colour as a swatch (Color panel > Create New Swatch): the fill or stroke of the first selected object, or the default fill or stroke when nothing is selected. Named after its values the way Illustrator names them unless a name is given

Change a colour group (swatch group): rename it, move swatches into it, delete some of its swatches, or delete the group with its swatches, as the Swatches panel and Recolor Artwork's colour groups do

Open a built-in swatch library panel (Window > Swatch Libraries), e.g. "Gradients > Water", "Color Books > PANTONE+ Solid Coated". The panel only shows the library; load_swatch_library copies its swatches into the document

Copy swatches from a swatch library into the document, the way dragging them from a library panel does: a built-in library (Window > Swatch Libraries, e.g. "Gradients > Wood", including the gradient presets) or a library .ai file. Keeps the library's swatch groups. Colour books (.acb) and pattern…

Save the document's swatches as a swatch library (Swatches panel > Save Swatch Library as AI): an Illustrator file holding just the swatches and their groups, which Window > Swatch Libraries > Other Library opens. Save it in Illustrator's user Swatches folder to see it under User Defined. With…

Change colours by script, following Illustrator's colour commands: saturate (Edit > Edit Colors > Saturate: scales each ink, RGB colour amount or spot tint by a percentage), adjust_balance (Edit > Edit Colors > Adjust Color Balance: adds percentages to the CMYK, RGB, gray or global-tint values of…

Set or clear overprint on black, as Edit > Edit Colors > Overprint Black does, by script: fills and strokes whose black is at least the given percentage. By default only pure black (no cyan, magenta or yellow) and gray qualify; includeCmyBlacks adds rich blacks and includeSpotBlacks adds spot…

Fill (or stroke) items with a gradient swatch and place it the way the Gradient tool does: on each object, or with across: true as one gradient spanning all of them (one gradient across several objects). Give an angle, or from and to points to place it exactly like dragging the Gradient tool (for…

List the colour settings files Illustrator offers (Edit > Color Settings), the default for this locale, and the active document's colour mode and assigned profile (Edit > Assign Profile shows it)

No parameter schema on file.

Apply a colour settings file (Edit > Color Settings > Settings): a name from get_color_settings, such as "North America General Purpose 2", or an absolute path to a .csf file. This changes Illustrator's colour management for every document

Colour display in the document window: choose the soft-proof condition (View > Proof Setup: working CMYK, legacy Mac RGB, sRGB, monitor RGB, or the protanopia and deuteranopia colour-blindness simulations), toggle View > Proof Colors, and toggle View > Show/Hide Gradient Annotator. Illustrator…

Set Character panel, OpenType panel and CJK character attributes on text frames, a character range of each, or the selected text: font and style, size, leading, kerning, tracking, scales, baseline shift, rotation, language, caps, superscript and subscript, underline, strikethrough, fill and…

Step text formatting up or down the way the Type keyboard commands do: font size up or down by points or by Font Size Step Up/Down, kern or track looser or tighter, Clear Tracking, Uniform Type (scales back to 100%), and Fit Headline (Type > Fit Headline, area type)

Set Paragraph panel attributes on text frames, some of their paragraphs, or the selected text: alignment, indents, space before and after, hyphenation (the Hyphenation dialog), word and letter spacing, glyph scaling and auto leading (the Justification dialog), single-word justification, composer,…

Set the tab stops of text frames, some of their paragraphs, or the selected text (Tabs panel): left, centre, right and decimal tabs, leaders, the decimal character, and Repeat Tab. Replaces the existing stops; an empty list clears them

Read the formatting of text frames or the selected text: character and paragraph attributes (of the first character and paragraph of the range), tab stops, the character and paragraph styles in use, and the frame's area type options and threads

List the document's character and paragraph styles (Character Styles and Paragraph Styles panels), optionally with their attributes

Create a character or paragraph style (New Character Style, New Paragraph Style), optionally from the formatting of existing text (its first character and paragraph), then with the given attributes, and optionally apply it to that text

Change a character or paragraph style (Character Style Options, Paragraph Style Options): rename it and set attributes. reset first removes every attribute the style holds, so it keeps only the ones given

Delete character or paragraph styles by name (Delete Character Style, Delete Paragraph Style). Text using them keeps its look as local formatting; the [Normal] styles cannot be deleted

Apply a character style to text frames, a character range or the selected text, or a paragraph style to their paragraphs. clearOverrides removes local formatting that differs from the style. Without name, the text's current styles are reapplied with overrides cleared (Clear Overrides)

Load character styles, paragraph styles or both from another Illustrator file (Load Character Styles, Load Paragraph Styles, Load All Styles). Styles with the same name are replaced

Set text frame options: convert between point and area type (Type > Convert To Area Type / Point Type), resize the type area without scaling the text, Area Type Options (rows, columns, gutters, inset spacing, first baseline, text flow), Optical Margin Alignment and anti-aliasing

Thread text between area or path type frames (Type > Threaded Text): link flows text through the frames in the order given; release takes the frames out of their threads, keeping the rest linked (Release Selection); remove breaks every thread through them, leaving the text in place (Remove…

List the action sets and their actions in the Actions panel (Window > Actions), as Illustrator stores them in its preferences. A set loaded or changed since Illustrator last stored its preferences may not show yet. With filePath, describe an .aia file instead: its set, actions and numbered steps…

Play an action from a loaded set (Actions panel > Play Current Selection). The action acts on the active document and its selection; give target to select items first. Steps run without their dialogs; recorded values are used. The result is the document and selection afterwards

Load an action set from an .aia file (Actions panel > Load Actions, or Replace Actions with replace: "all"). Before loading, the file can be edited: load the set under a new name, rename actions (Action Options), remove actions or steps, switch steps on or off (Toggle Item On/Off) and their…

Create an action set with new actions (Actions panel > Create New Set, Create New Action) from steps recorded in saved .aia files: each new action lists the steps it copies, as a whole saved action or one numbered step of it, and can switch each step or its dialog on or off. Then load the set,…

Remove action sets or actions from the Actions panel (Delete Selection), or every set (Clear Actions). Removed sets are gone from the panel; save them first if they are not in a file. all: true removes the sets list_actions reports

Play an action on every file in a folder, or on every data set of the active document, and save the results (does what Actions panel > Batch does, by script). Folder: each .ai, .pdf, .eps or .svg file is opened, the action played, and the file left open (destination none), saved in place and…

Run a script file (File > Scripts > Other Script, or a script installed in File > Scripts given by its path): .jsx, .js or .jsxbin. Like execute_illustrator_code it runs unrestricted: it can change or delete anything and read or write files. The coordinate system is left as the script expects;…

Import a CSV data source into data sets (Variables panel > Import, data merge): the first row names the fields, prefixed @ for an image variable (absolute file paths) and # for a visibility variable (true or false); other fields are text. Fields are separated by commas or tabs. Each row becomes a…

Read items' tags (name-value labels scripts attach to artwork) and notes (Attributes panel > Note). Without target, lists every item in the document that has a tag or a note

Set items' tags (name-value labels scripts attach to artwork; not shown in Illustrator's panels) and note (Attributes panel > Note). tags maps names to text values; null removes a tag. Tag names use letters, digits and underscores

Place an image or other file at x, y on an artboard, linked or embedded (File > Place): PNG, JPEG, JPEG 2000, TIFF, PSD, GIF, BMP, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, TGA, PCX, PXR, PDF (a chosen page), EPS and DCS, SVG/SVGZ, AI, AutoCAD DWG/DXF, CGM, CorelDRAW, EMF/WMF. Give width to scale it proportionally. Text…

Export artboards as PNG files, one per artboard, at a scale (100 = 72 ppi, 300 = 216 ppi)

Export artboards as JPEG files, one per artboard, at a quality and scale (100 = 72 ppi, 300 = 216 ppi). Transparent areas are filled with the matte colour

Save artboards as SVG files with the full SVG Options (File > Save As > SVG): profile, font subsetting, encoding, editing data, slices, XMP, variables, text options, SVGZ compression. For lean SVG for the web use export_web_svg

Export artboards as lean SVG for the web (File > Export > Export As > SVG): styling, object IDs, decimals, minify, responsive

Export artboards, collected assets (list_assets) and the full document in several formats and scales in one pass (File > Export > Export for Screens, and the Asset Export panel). Scales apply to PNG and JPEG

Save a PDF copy of the document with a PDF preset (e.g. "[High Quality Print]", "[PDF/X-4:2008]"), optionally overriding its compatibility, PDF/X standard, image compression and downsampling, font subsetting, bleed, printer's marks, colour conversion, output intent, transparency flattening,…

Put text on or inside a path (Type on a Path tool, or the Area Type tool on a shape). kind path runs the text along the path; area flows it inside the shape. The path becomes the text's path, as with the tools; give keepPath to leave the original in place

Change type on a path (Type > Type on a Path and Type on a Path Options): apply an effect (rainbow, skew, 3D ribbon, stair step, gravity), slide the text along the path with start and end, set spacing, flip the text to the other side of the path, or update legacy path type. Align to Path…

Insert a special, white space or break character into text frames (Type > Insert Special Character, Insert White Space Character, Insert Break Character): symbols, dashes, quotation marks, spaces and forced line break. At the start, at the end, or at a character index

Replace keyboard punctuation with typographer's punctuation, the way Type > Smart Punctuation does: straight quotes to curly quotes, -- to an en dash and --- to an em dash, ... to an ellipsis, multiple spaces after a period to one, and optionally ff/fi/fl/ffi/ffl ligatures and fractions such as…

No parameter schema on file.

Fill text frames with placeholder text (Type > Fill With Placeholder Text). Area text is filled to the edge of its frame; point and path text get one sentence. Existing text is replaced

Run a Type or Edit menu command that opens no dialog: convert_bullets_to_text (Type > Bullets and Numbering > Convert to text, on the targets), show_hidden_characters (Type > Show Hidden Characters) or auto_spell_check (Edit > Spelling > Auto Spell Check). The last two switch the setting on or off…

List the fonts used in the document's text, with how many characters use each and whether each is missing (not installed or activated)

Replace fonts in the document's text (Type > Find/Replace Font, and the replace step of Type > Resolve Missing Fonts): every run in the from fonts, or in every missing font, gets the to font. Other formatting is kept. Activating fonts from Adobe Fonts is not done

Find text across the document or in text frames, and optionally replace it (Edit > Find and Replace, Find Next), with Match Case and Whole Word. Without replace, matches are listed, and selectMatch selects one of them in the text, like Find Next. Formatting is kept; threaded frames are searched as…

Make or release text wrap on objects (Object > Text Wrap > Make, Release, Text Wrap Options): text in frames below the object flows around it, at an offset, or inside it with invert. The object must be above the text

List the document's stories (the text in one frame, or flowing through threaded frames), with their frames, length and the start of their text, plus how many legacy text objects need updating

Update legacy text (from Illustrator 10 or earlier) so it can be edited (Type > Legacy Text > Update All Legacy Text, or Update Selected Legacy Text for the targets). Line breaks and spacing can shift as the text is recomposed

Make text frames horizontal or vertical (Type > Type Orientation)

Bring a plain text file (.txt, UTF-8) into the document: into a new point or area text frame at x, y, or replacing the text of one frame (File > Place for text). Line breaks become paragraphs

Save text to a plain text file (.txt, UTF-8): the stories of the given frames, or every story in the document, separated by blank lines (File > Export > Text Format)

Set Japanese and other Asian composition on text frames: the Adobe Asian (Latin and CJK) composer, single-line or every-line; kinsoku shori and mojikumi sets (by the names the document defines) and the kinsoku order; and the character options tsume, aki, tate-chu-yoko and warichu

Set up Arabic and Hebrew text on text frames: paragraph direction, the Middle Eastern composer, digit set, kashidas and character direction

List items with their id, name, type, layer and position. Filter by layer, artboard or type. Ids are what other tools take in target.ids

Describe the current selection

No parameter schema on file.

Select items (replacing the current selection). Menu commands act on the selection

Deselect everything in the active document

No parameter schema on file.

Select every object that shares an attribute with the targets (Select > Same), e.g. all objects with the same fill colour. The targets are selected first and set the attribute

Select all unlocked, visible objects in the document, or on one artboard (Select > All, All on Active Artboard)

Delete items from the document (Illustrator's Edit > Undo can restore them)

Duplicate items, offsetting each copy by dx, dy points. With count > 1, each copy is offset from the previous one (step and repeat)

Move items by dx, dy points, or place their top-left corner at x, y on an artboard

Scale items by a percentage. Give scale for uniform scaling, or scaleX and scaleY

Rotate items by an angle in degrees (counter-clockwise, as in Illustrator)

Flip items horizontally or vertically around their centre

Align items to each other (their combined bounds), to an artboard, or to a key object that stays still (Object > Align, Align panel). center_middle centres both ways in one step

Change stacking order: bring to front, bring forward, send backward, send to back

Group items. The group is created where the frontmost item is

Ungroup groups, leaving their contents in place. With allLevels, ungroup every level of nested groups at once (Object > Ungroup All, Illustrator 29.3 or later)

Clip items with a path: the clipping path shows only the artwork inside it. clipPath must be a path id; it is moved above the other items

Combine paths into one compound path (Object > Compound Path > Make): overlapping areas become holes

Draw a rectangle, optionally with rounded corners. x and y are the top-left corner in points from the artboard's top-left

Draw an ellipse inside the box whose top-left corner is x, y

Draw a regular polygon centred on centerX, centerY

Draw a star centred on centerX, centerY

Draw a straight line (Line Segment tool) from x1, y1 to x2, y2, or from x1, y1 with a length and angle as in the tool's options dialog. With fill, the line is filled (Fill Line)

Draw a path through points. Each point is [x, y], or an object with x, y and optional curve handles in and out ([x, y] in the same coordinates)

Add text. Point text grows with its content from x, y (the left end of the first baseline); area text flows inside a box of width and height whose top-left is x, y

Set font, size, colour, justification, leading or tracking on whole text frames

Replace the text of text frames. Character formatting of the first character is kept

Convert text frames to outlined artwork (Type > Create Outlines). The text is no longer editable

List installed fonts whose name, family or style contains the query

List the assets collected for export in the document (Window > Asset Export): id, name and the file name they export as. Pass the ids to export_for_screens to export them

No parameter schema on file.

Add artwork to the Asset Export panel (Collect for Export > As Single Asset, or As Multiple Assets). Returns the new asset ids for export_for_screens

Rename an asset in the Asset Export panel. The name is the exported file name

Remove assets from the Asset Export panel. The artwork stays in the document

Export the selected artwork on its own (File > Export Selection), as a PNG at 100% or as an Illustrator file. For other formats and scales, collect_assets and export_for_screens with the asset ids

List object-based slices (items made into slices with Object > Slice > Make) and sliced layers, with each slice's URL. User slices drawn with the Slice Tool are not listed

No parameter schema on file.

Run an Object > Slice command: make (object-based slices from the targets), release, create_from_selection, create_from_guides, duplicate, combine, clip_to_artboard (toggle), delete_all; or View > Show / Hide Slices (toggle_visibility) and Lock Slices (toggle_lock). create_region makes a slice…

Set the URL of items (Attributes panel URL, used for image maps, and the URL of object-based slices). An empty url clears it

Start an untitled document from an Illustrator template (.ait) file (File > New from Template). The template itself is not changed

Write a copy of the active document's saved file to another path; the document stays open and keeps referring to its own file (File > Save a Copy). The document must be saved with no unsaved changes, and the copy keeps its format

Discard the active document's unsaved changes by reloading its saved file (File > Revert). Undo history is lost

No parameter schema on file.

Close every open document (File > Close All). Unsaved changes are discarded unless save is true; with save, every document with changes must already have a file

List the new-document presets (Print, Web, Mobile, Film & Video, Art & Illustration and saved custom presets) with their size, units and colour mode, for create_document_from_preset

No parameter schema on file.

Create a document from a new-document preset (File > New), overriding its name, size, orientation, units, colour mode, raster effects resolution, preview mode, transparency grid and bleed. list_document_presets names the presets

Report the active document's Document Setup values the object model exposes: units, colour mode, large canvas, Show Images in Outline Mode, and each artboard's ruler origin

No parameter schema on file.

Change document settings: colour mode (File > Document Color Mode, converting every colour), an artboard's ruler origin, conversion to a large canvas, or switch to the Artboard tool (Document Setup > Edit Artboards). Units, bleed and the other Document Setup options can only be set in the dialog;…

Open a file with Illustrator's open options: update legacy text and gradient meshes, convert a pre-CS4 document's crop area, print tiles or artwork bounds to artboards, keep it off the recent files list, or open it as a swatch, brush, symbol or graphic style library. Use open_document for a plain…

Read the active document's metadata (File > File Info): title, authors, description, keywords, copyright, and the dates and creator tool, from its XMP packet

Set the active document's metadata (File > File Info). Each field given replaces the stored value; an empty value removes it. Or pass xmp to replace the whole XMP packet. Saved with the document

Cut or copy items, or paste the clipboard (Edit > Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste in Place, Paste on All Artboards, Paste without Formatting). Pasted items are selected and returned

Bring an open document to the front by name or by its list_documents index, or move to the next or previous document or document group (Window menu document navigation)

Describe the active document: name, file, colour mode, artboards with their sizes, layers, item counts and selection

No parameter schema on file.

List the open documents and which one is active

No parameter schema on file.

Create a document. The colour mode cannot be changed later without converting every colour, so choose CMYK for print and RGB for screen

Open a file as a new document (File > Open): Illustrator (.ai, .ait template), PDF, EPS, SVG/SVGZ, AutoCAD DWG/DXF, images (PSD, TIFF, PNG, JPEG, JPEG 2000, GIF, BMP, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, TGA, PCX, PXR), CGM, CorelDRAW, EMF/WMF, and Word, RTF or text (opened with Illustrator's last-used import…

Save the active document. With filePath, save it as an Illustrator (.ai) or Illustrator EPS (.eps) file there; the document then refers to that file. Can also save each artboard to its own file

Close the active document. Unsaved changes are discarded unless save is true

List artboards with their position and size in points. x and y are measured from artboard 0's top-left corner

No parameter schema on file.

Add an artboard. x and y are measured from artboard 0's top-left corner, in points

Rename, move or resize an artboard, or switch it between portrait and landscape (Object > Artboards > Switch Orientation). Position is measured from artboard 0's top-left corner. scaleArtwork scales and moves the artwork on it with it

Delete an artboard. Its artwork stays on the canvas. The last artboard cannot be deleted

Make an artboard active (the one Illustrator's artboard commands and menu commands act on)

Resize an artboard to the bounds of the given artwork (Object > Artboards > Fit to Selected Art), or without target, to all the artwork on it (Fit to Artwork Bounds)

Arrange all artboards in a grid, row or column

List top-level layers and their sublayers, with visibility, lock state, Layer Options and item counts

No parameter schema on file.

Create a layer at the top of the stack, or as a sublayer of parentLayer, with the Layer Options settings (Layers panel menu > New Layer, New Layer with Dialog)

Rename a layer, show or hide it, lock it, set whether it prints, its opacity, Layer Options (colour, preview, dim images), knockout group, or move it in the stack

Make a layer active: new artwork goes on it when a tool is not given a layer

Delete a layer and everything on it

Move items to the top of another layer, or of the active layer when layer is omitted (Object > Arrange > Send to Current Layer)

Apply a Live Effect to items (Effect menu): Stylize, Distort & Transform, Warp, Path, Convert to Shape, Crop Marks, Rasterize, Gaussian Blur and NTSC Colors. It stays editable in the Appearance panel unless expand is true, which turns the result into plain artwork. Raster effects render at the…

Combine shapes as the Pathfinder panel does: unite, minus front, intersect, exclude, divide, trim, merge, crop, outline, minus back, and the Effect > Pathfinder colour operations hard mix, soft mix and trap. The items are grouped and the Pathfinder effect applied; with expand (default) the result…

Apply an SVG filter to items as a Live Effect (Effect > SVG Filters): one of the filters new documents carry (…) or the name of another SVG filter in the document. The filter must exist in the document. Use expand to turn the result into plain artwork

Apply the most recently used effect again, with the same settings, to items (Effect > Apply Last Effect). Nothing changes if no effect has been applied in this Illustrator session

Set the document raster effects settings (Effect > Document Raster Effects Settings): the colour model, resolution, background, anti-aliasing, clipping mask, added space and spot colours that raster effects such as drop shadows, glows, blurs and Rasterize use. Give only what should change; called…

Read Illustrator preferences: …. Omit names to read them all

Change Illustrator preferences. They persist, as if set in the Preferences dialog. Pass an object of name: value

No parameter schema on file.

Switch Illustrator to a tool, ready for the user to draw with it. Name it as Illustrator does, e.g. "Pen Tool", "Shape Builder Tool", "Width Tool", "Column Graph Tool", "Mesh Tool", "Blend Tool"

Export as a Photoshop file (File > Export > Export As > Photoshop): colour model, resolution, layers, editable text, maximum editability, anti-aliasing, ICC profile, one file per artboard

Export as TIFF (File > Export > Export As > TIFF): colour model, resolution, anti-aliasing, LZW compression, byte order, ICC profile, one file per artboard

Export artboards as GIF or PNG-8 with a reduced colour table, one per artboard (File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)): colours, reduction, dither, transparency, matte, web snap, lossy GIF, interlacing, scale, HTML

Export as an AutoCAD drawing, DWG or DXF by the file extension (File > Export > Export As > AutoCAD): AutoCAD version, scale and units, line weights, colours, raster format, appearance or editability, selected art only, outlined text

Write only the selected artwork (or the items given) to a new Illustrator file, leaving the document as it is (File > Export Selection as AI)

Place the contents of a plain-text (.txt) file as type at x, y on an artboard (File > Place with a text file): point text, or area text when width and height are given

List linked and embedded images and other non-native art (the Links panel and Links information): file name, path, format, size on disk, modified date, missing links, effective resolution, colour space and bits per channel of embedded images, embedded files, non-native art and plug-in art such as…

Relink or replace linked files (Links panel > Relink). Give target and filePath to point the targets at another file; with allInstances, every placement of the same file is relinked too. Give folder to replace missing links at once: each missing link is relinked to the file with the same name in…

Update linked files that changed on disk (Links panel > Update Link), or embed them (Embed Image). Acts on the targets, or every linked file with all: true. Embedding replaces each placed item with native art, so its id changes

Select a linked or embedded image and centre the view on it (Links panel > Go To Link)

Place several files at once (File > Place with multiple files), laid out in a grid from x, y on an artboard, linked or embedded. Photoshop files take the Photoshop Import Options: convert layers to objects (needs embed), import hidden layers, slices, image maps and a layer comp; Illustrator's own…

Rasterize the targets into an embedded image (Object > Rasterize), with the dialog's options: colour model, resolution, background, anti-aliasing, clipping mask, space added around the object, spot colours, text to outlines and layer attributes. By default the targets become one image; clipBounds…

Crop linked or embedded images to a rectangle, discarding the pixels outside it (Object > Crop Image). The result is an embedded image at the given resolution; a linked file is embedded, as Crop Image does

Colour a grayscale or 1-bit embedded image with an RGB or CMYK colour (Colorize, the way a fill applies to such an image). Embed linked images first with update_links

Run an Object menu image command on the targets: remove_background (Object > Remove Background, Illustrator 30.4 and later: keeps the subject of an image), make_mockup (Object > Mockup > Make / Preview: wrap the vector art onto the image beneath it; select both), release_mockup (Object > Mockup >…

Run a Layers panel menu command: merge layers (Merge Selected), flatten every layer into one (Flatten Artwork), collect items or layers in a new layer (Collect in New Layer), give each object of a layer or group its own sublayer (Release to Layers (Sequence) or (Build)), or reverse the stacking…

Hide, lock or outline every top-level layer except the ones holding the chosen layers or items (Object > Hide > Other Layers, Object > Lock > Other Layers, Layers panel menu > Outline Others), or show, unlock or preview them again

Select all the artwork on layers, as clicking a layer's selection column or target circle in the Layers panel does. Appearance tools then act on it. Artwork on hidden or locked layers cannot be selected

Paste the clipboard directly in front of or behind the selected objects, on their layer (Edit > Paste in Front, Paste in Back). With target, those items are copied first, so the pasted copies sit exactly over or under them

Duplicate an artboard with the artwork on it (Artboards panel menu > Duplicate Artboards), copy it into another open document, or cut it (move it and its artwork, removing the original). Artwork belongs to an artboard when its centre lies on it

Delete every artboard that no artwork touches (Artboards panel menu > Delete Empty Artboards). Hidden and locked artwork and guides count as artwork. One artboard always remains

Align artboards to one another, or space them evenly, moving the artwork on them along (Artboard tool: align and distribute artboards). Artwork belongs to an artboard when its centre lies on it

Change the artboards' numbering order, which sets their page order when exporting (Artboards panel: move up, move down, or drag). Positions and artwork do not change

Turn the chosen objects (usually rectangles) into artboards of the same bounds (Object > Artboards > Convert to Artboards)

Artboard display options (Artboard Options: Show Center Mark, Show Cross Hairs, Show Video Safe Areas, Video Ruler Pixel Aspect Ratio, ruler origin), the artboard border and name display (application preferences, for every document), and the View menu's Show / Hide Artboards and Show / Hide Video…

Show an artboard in the document window: make it active and fit it in the window, fit all artboards, or zoom on its centre (View > Fit Artboard in Window, Fit All in Window)

Edit anchor points of paths: remove them without splitting the path (Object > Path > Remove Anchor Points), convert them to corner points (handles retracted) or smooth points (handles aligned; retracted handles are pulled out a third of the way to the neighbouring anchors), or set one point's…

Copy paths and other items into another open document (onto its active layer or a named layer, at the same document coordinates), or onto the clipboard for pasting into other applications (Edit > Copy)

Reduce the anchor points of paths while keeping their shape (Object > Path > Simplify), with Simplify's curve precision, corner angle threshold and straight lines options. Runs Illustrator's own Simplify through a temporary Action, with its dialog closed

Pathfinder panel compound shapes: make one from the targets with a shape mode (unite, intersect, exclude, minus_front; the parts stay editable), release one back into its objects, or expand one into plain paths (the panel's Expand button). Runs the panel's commands through a temporary Action

Apply the last Pathfinder panel operation again to the targets (Repeat Pathfinder, Cmd/Ctrl+4). It repeats what was last done in the panel, not the pathfinder tool here; if nothing was, nothing happens

Object > Intertwine (Illustrator 2023 or later). make puts overlapping objects in an Intertwine group; choosing which overlaps swap front and back is done by the user afterwards, by clicking or drawing around each overlap. release returns the objects to their original stacking

Make a pattern swatch from the targets (Object > Pattern > Make), optionally naming it. The artwork stays where it is. By default Illustrator leaves pattern editing mode at once; with keepEditing it stays there so tile type, size, spacing and overlap can be set by hand in the Pattern Options…

Fill or stroke paths, compound paths, groups (every path inside) and text with a pattern swatch in the document, by pattern or swatch name: one made with create_pattern or a predefined one (list_swatches shows them as kind pattern). Library patterns must first be added to the document's Swatches…

Rename a pattern swatch (the Name field of the Pattern Options panel)

Enter pattern editing mode for the pattern that fills the target (Object > Pattern > Edit Pattern), or leave it (mode exit, like Done). In the mode, the tile options are set by hand in the Pattern Options panel and other tools act on the pattern's artwork

Move, scale, rotate, reflect or shear the pattern inside objects without changing the objects (like the Transform options with Transform Objects off and Transform Patterns on, or dragging with the ` key held). Steps apply in that order: reflect, scale, rotate, shear, move