Illustrator MCP Server

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

Transform items by an affine matrix [a, b, c, d, tx, ty] in artboard terms (x right, y down): x' = a·x + c·y + tx, y' = b·x + d·y + ty, applied around the reference point. tx and ty are points

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 panel. transform_pattern then moves, scales or rotates the pattern inside the objects

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 1/2. Formatting is kept

Apply an SVG filter to items as a Live Effect (Effect > SVG Filters): one of the filters new documents carry (AI_Alpha_1, AI_Alpha_4, AI_BevelShadow_1, AI_CoolBreeze, AI_Dilate_3, AI_Dilate_6, AI_Erode_3, AI_Erode_6, AI_GaussianBlur_4, AI_GaussianBlur_7, AI_PixelPlay_1, AI_PixelPlay_2, AI_Shadow_1, AI_Shadow_2, AI_Static, AI_Turbulence_3, AI_Turbulence_5, AI_Woodgrain) 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 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)

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

Put objects into perspective on a grid plane. Without a position, they are attached where they are (Object > Perspective > Attach to Active Plane); with x and y they are placed at that point on the plane (PageItem.bringInPerspective, in the grid's own coordinates as Adobe's scripting guide uses them). The grid is shown first

Average anchor points (Object > Path > Average): move them onto one horizontal line, one vertical line, or one point. Handles move with their anchors. With join, connect the averaged end points afterwards (Average & Join)

Bind an existing variable to more items. Each item takes the variable's kind: a text frame for text, a placed image for image, a graph for graph, any object for visibility

Turn symbol instances into ordinary artwork (Symbols panel > Break Link to Symbol). The symbol stays in the document

Change the case of text frames' text (Type > Change Case): UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case or Sentence case

Change the selection with a Select menu command: reselect (repeat the last Select > Same or Select > Object command), inverse (select everything not selected), next_above or next_below (the next object up or down the stacking order in the same layer; next_below reaches objects hidden behind others). Give target to select those items first; otherwise the current selection is used

Remove stray points (single-anchor paths), unpainted paths (no fill, no stroke) and empty text from the document (Object > Path > Clean Up). Locked and hidden objects, clipping paths, guides and the paths inside compound paths are left alone

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

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

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

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

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

Turn paths that resemble rectangles, rounded rectangles, ellipses, polygons or lines into live shapes (Object > Shape > Convert to Shape), or turn live shapes back into ordinary paths (Object > Shape > Expand Shape). Live-shape properties (width, height, angle, corner radii in the Transform panel) cannot be read or set by a script; move_items, rotate_items and scale_items transform live shapes

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

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

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

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)

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, save it as an .aia file, or both. Steps cannot be recorded here; record them in Illustrator and save the set first

Draw an arc (Arc tool, with the Arc Segment Tool Options): the arc spans a width x height box (Length X-Axis, Length Y-Axis) from the start corner to the opposite corner. baseAlong x leaves the start point horizontally, y vertically. slope: positive is convex, negative concave, 0 a straight line. closed adds the corner the arc curves around (a pie-slice shape). With fill, the arc is filled (Fill Arc)

Create data sets from records: for each record, set the bound items to its values (text for text variables, an image file for image variables, true/false for visibility) and capture a data set with its name. A record that names an existing data set updates it. Variables a record leaves out keep their previous value

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

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

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

Add a linear or radial gradient swatch from colour stops, and optionally apply it as the fill of items

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)

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)

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

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 panel, and edit_pattern with mode exit finishes

Draw a polar grid (Polar Grid tool, with its options dialog) as a group: concentric ellipses and radial lines, each with skew. compoundPath makes every other ring a compound path (Create Compound Path From Ellipses). With fill, the ellipses are filled (Fill Grid)

Draw a regular polygon centred on centerX, centerY

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

Draw a rectangular grid (Rectangular Grid tool, with its options dialog) as a group: horizontal and vertical dividers with skew, and the outside edges as one rectangle (Use Outside Rectangle As Frame) or as four lines. With fill, the frame is filled (Fill Grid)

Draw a spiral (Spiral tool, with its dialog's options): radius from the centre to the outermost point, decay (each quarter-turn segment's radius as a percentage of the one before), segments (quarter turns; four make one wind) and style (direction). It starts at its outermost point, to the right of the centre, and winds inward

Draw a star centred on centerX, centerY

Add a swatch: a process colour, a global process colour (editing it updates every object that uses it), or a spot colour (an ink such as a Pantone colour or a varnish plate). Optionally put it in a swatch group

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

Make a symbol from artwork (Symbols panel > New Symbol) with a registration point. By default the artwork is replaced by an instance of the new symbol, as the panel does. Several items become one symbol, or one symbol each with each: true

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

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

Draw trim marks around the targets' bounds (Object > Create Trim Marks). The marks are editable artwork

Create a variable (Variables panel > New Variable) and optionally bind it to items: text to text frames, image to placed images, graph to graphs, visibility to any object (Make Object Dynamic, Make Visibility Dynamic)

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

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

Delete data sets by name, or all of them. Variables and the artwork stay as displayed

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

Delete graphic styles from the document (Graphic Styles panel menu > Delete Graphic Style). Items keep their appearance; only the saved style goes

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

Delete a layer and everything on it

Delete swatches by name

Delete symbols by name, or every unused symbol (Symbols panel > Select All Unused, then Delete Symbol). A symbol with instances is refused unless instances says to delete them or turn them into ordinary artwork (expand)

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

Delete variables by name. Their bound items stay in the document, no longer dynamic

Deselect everything in the active document

Distort items by moving the corners of their bounding box, as the Free Transform tool's Free Distort and Perspective Distort do. free: give corners as [x, y] fractions of the box (0,0 top-left, 1,1 bottom-right). perspective: one edge narrows (positive amount) or widens (negative) symmetrically. Applied as the Free Distort effect; expand (default) makes it plain artwork

Distribute items evenly (Object > Distribute, Align panel): by left, horizontal centre or right edges, top, vertical centre or bottom edges, or equal horizontal or vertical space between them. The outermost items stay put. With spacing (hspace, vspace), items are set exactly that many points apart, starting from the key object (or the first item), which does not move

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

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

Copy a symbol under a new name (Symbols panel > Duplicate Symbol). The copy is registered at its centre

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 anchor and handles. Choose points by index (from get_path_info) on one path, or the anchors selected with the Direct Selection tool

Select the clipping path of clip groups (Object > Clipping Mask > Edit Mask) or their contents (Edit Contents), so other tools can change them; returns their ids

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

Work with envelopes (Object > Envelope Distort): release (separate the contents from the envelope shape), expand (apply the distortion as plain artwork), or edit_contents (switch between editing the contents and the envelope; run again to switch back)

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

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 over a rectangle, as dragging the Slice Tool does

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 as a new global or spot colour; making a global or spot swatch process deletes the global colour, and objects that used it keep its colour as a process colour

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

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

Run your own ExtendScript in Illustrator and return its last expression. It runs unrestricted: it can change or delete anything and read or write files. Prefer the specific tools

Run an Illustrator menu command by its executeMenuCommand name (e.g. "outline" = Type > Create Outlines, "expandStyle" = Object > Expand Appearance). Illustrator reports nothing back and silently ignores names it does not know, so the result is the selection and document state afterwards. Commands that open a dialog wait for the user. Use find_menu_commands to look names up

Expand blends so every step becomes an ordinary object (Object > Blend > Expand)

Expand Live Paint groups into ordinary filled and stroked paths that keep their painted look (Object > Live Paint > Expand)

Turn objects attached to a path into independent objects in place (Object > Objects on Path > Expand; Illustrator 2025 or later). Attaching and the Objects on Path options open a dialog or need clicks, so they are not offered

Expand image tracings into ordinary paths that can be edited like any artwork (Object > Image Trace > Expand). The tracing and its source image are replaced

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

Export every data set (or the ones named) as PNG or JPEG files: each data set is displayed in turn and its artboards exported as <data set>-<artboard>.<ext>. The data set on display before is shown again afterwards

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

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 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, passwords and permissions, thumbnails and Acrobat layers (Save Adobe PDF dialog). The document must be saved first; it is reopened afterwards so you keep working on the .ai file

Save every perspective grid preset to a file (Edit > Perspective Grid Presets > Export), to load with import_perspective_presets

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

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 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

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)

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

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)

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

Save the document's variables and data sets as a variable library (Variables panel > Save Variable Library), an XML file

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

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

Search the known executeMenuCommand names by command name or menu path

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 one story

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 object has its exact colour values. Colours used only inside symbols, brushes, graphic styles or effects are not seen, so check the list before deleting

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)

Flatten transparency in the targets permanently (Object > Flatten Transparency), without the dialog: transparent artwork becomes opaque vector and raster pieces. Resolution is the one setting offered; the dialog's other settings stay at the values published scripts record for this command

Read the fill, stroke, opacity and blending mode of items

Report items' geometric bounds (paths only), visible bounds (with strokes and effects) and control bounds (with handles), in points from an artboard's top-left corner

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)

Read the document's default fill and stroke, the attributes new objects get, and whether the Fill or the Stroke box is in front in the toolbar's Fill and Stroke controls

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

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

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

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

Describe paths (inside groups and compound paths too): closed, fill rule, guide, anchor count, area and length, and optionally every anchor point with its handles and type, in artboard coordinates

Description is built at runtime.

Describe the current selection

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

Report image tracings: their paths, anchors and colours (Image Trace panel info) and every option they use

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

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

List the tools by area, or describe one tool's parameters

Hide artwork (Object > Hide): scope selection hides the targets, above hides the artwork stacked above them, others hides everything except them. show_all shows it again. The result lists what was hidden

Check that Illustrator is reachable: platform, how the server addresses Illustrator, whether it is running, its version and open documents. Use this first when a call fails to connect

Bring brushes from a brush library file (an .ai file, such as one saved with save_brush_library or a library from Illustrator's Presets folder) into the active document's Brushes panel, as Window > Brush Libraries > Other Library does. Give names to import only those; brushes the document already has are skipped

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 data set; a row that names an existing data set updates it. Each field must match a variable already bound to artwork (create_variable); graph (%) fields are not supported. Use show_data_set to preview and run_batch or export_data_sets for the output

Load perspective grid presets from a file exported by export_perspective_presets or Edit > Perspective Grid Presets > Export. Give preset to load only that one, and select to make it the document's grid

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

Load a variable library (Variables panel > Load Variable Library): an XML file of variables and data sets, e.g. one saved by export_variables or another Illustrator document. Variables bind to objects by name

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

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

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 (with each step's on/off and dialog settings), without loading it

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

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

List the brushes in the active document's Brushes panel, by name. Illustrator's scripting does not report a brush's type (calligraphic, scatter, art, pattern, bristle) or its settings

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

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

List the open documents and which one is active

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

List the graphic styles in the document (Graphic Styles panel), in panel order

List the document's graphs (made with the graph tools) with their position and the graph variable each is bound to, plus the data sets that can redraw them

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 tracings

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

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

List the document's gradient mesh objects with their id, position and size. Mesh points and colours are not reachable by script

List what printing can use: printers with their capabilities, PPD files, print presets, transparency flattener presets and PDF presets

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

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

List the document's swatches with their kind (process, global, spot), colour values and swatch group

List the document's symbols (Symbols panel) with how many instances each has; unused symbols are marked (Symbols panel > Select All Unused)

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

List the Image Trace presets Illustrator has: the built-in ones (in brackets) and any saved (Image Trace panel > Preset, Edit > Tracing Presets)

List the document's variables with their kind and the items bound to them, its data sets, the data set on display, and whether variables are locked

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 dialogs (Toggle Dialog On/Off). Step numbers come from list_actions with filePath. The file on disk is not changed; saveAs writes the edited set to a new .aia file. Function keys and colours are not changed

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

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 swatches cannot be copied by script

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

Lock artwork so it cannot be selected or edited (Object > Lock): scope selection locks the targets, above locks the artwork stacked above them, others locks everything except them. The result lists what was locked

Blend two or more objects (Object > Blend > Make), optionally setting the number of steps and the orientation. The objects blend in stacking order. For text designs, outlineText converts text to outlines first

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

Distort items into the shape of a top object (Object > Envelope Distort > Make with Top Object). Give the contents as target and the shape as shapeId; the shape is brought to the front of the first item's layer or group, so keep them together. Without shapeId, the frontmost target is the shape. Make with Warp and Make with Mesh open dialogs and are not offered

Make a Live Paint group from paths (Object > Live Paint > Make), or add paths to an existing Live Paint group (Object > Live Paint > Merge) when into is given. Painting its faces and edges stays interactive (select_tool "Planar Paintbucket Tool")

Repeat the targets as a live radial, grid or mirror repeat (Object > Repeat > Radial, Grid, Mirror; Illustrator 2023 or later), optionally setting its options: instances, radius and reverseOverlap for radial; horizontalSpacing, verticalSpacing, gridType, flipRows and flipColumns for grid; axisAngle for mirror

Trap paths by hand (spread traps): give each filled path an overprinting stroke in its own fill colour, so the colour spreads into the inks around it by half the stroke weight. Paths with gradient, pattern or no fill are skipped

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 tint; a process swatch is matched by colour value. Works on colour swatches, not gradients or patterns

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

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

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

Move items as the arrow keys do: by the Keyboard Increment preference, times steps, times 10 with large (Shift + arrow)

Open one of the brush libraries Illustrator ships as a panel (Window > Brush Libraries), for the user to pick brushes from. Clicking a brush there adds it to the document; to bring brushes in by script, use import_brushes with the library's file

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 options). PDF and AutoCAD import options are set for this call only

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 open

Show the Graphic Styles panel (Window > Graphic Styles), or open one of Illustrator's built-in graphic style libraries as a panel (Window > Graphic Style Libraries). A style used from a library is added to the document. Like every Window menu command, this hides a panel that is already showing at the front

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

Open a symbol library as a panel: one of Illustrator's built-in libraries (Window > Symbol Libraries), or a library file such as one saved with save_symbol_library (Window > Symbol Libraries > Other Library). Drag or copy its symbols into the document from the panel

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 order of layers (Reverse Order)

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 colours whose CMYK equivalent holds that much black. Overprint matters in separated CMYK output

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

Run an Object > Path command on the targets: outline_stroke (stroke to filled shape), join (connect open paths' end points), add_anchor_points (one between each pair), reverse_direction, divide_objects_below (cut everything beneath with the target's shape), release_compound_path, make_pixel_perfect, expand_appearance

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 becomes plain paths, otherwise it stays a live effect on the group

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 files go through place_text_file

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 options are restored afterwards

Place instances of a symbol (Symbols panel > Place Symbol Instance). x and y are the instance's top-left corner; without them it goes in the centre of the artboard

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

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

Print the active document to a printer, or to a PostScript file with outputFile. A print preset is the base; options are grouped like the Print dialog's pages and override it

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 limits it to a rectangle. The vector originals are removed

Arrange all artboards in a grid, row or column

Flip items horizontally or vertically around their centre

Release blends back into their original objects (Object > Blend > Release)

Release clip groups (Object > Clipping Mask > Release): the contents show in full again and the clipping path stays as a path with no fill or stroke

Release Live Paint groups back into plain paths with a thin black stroke and no fill (Object > Live Paint > Release)

Take objects out of perspective, keeping how they look (Object > Perspective > Release with Perspective)

Release radial, grid or mirror repeats back into their source artwork (Object > Repeat > Release)

Release image tracings: discard the traced result and keep the original image (Object > Image Trace > Release)

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 that folder

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

Take items out of their clip group, keeping their position: they are placed just in front of the group and are no longer clipped. The clipping path itself cannot be removed this way (use release_clipping_mask)

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

Rename a graphic style (Graphic Styles panel menu > Graphic Style Options)

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

Rename a symbol (Symbols panel > Symbol Options: name). A symbol's type, registration point and 9-slice guides cannot be changed by script

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

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

Repeat the last transformation on the targets (Object > Transform > Transform Again), count times. It repeats what Illustrator recorded as the last move, scale, rotate, reflect, shear or Transform Each, usually one made by hand or in a Transform dialog; transformations made by other tools may not be recorded

Make a blend follow a path (Object > Blend > Replace Spine): the path becomes the blend's spine and the steps are spread along it

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

Make symbol instances use another symbol (Symbols panel > Replace Symbol)

Square the bounding box of rotated items back to the page (Object > Transform > Reset Bounding Box). The artwork does not move

Give paths, compound paths and groups (every path inside) a white fill and a black 1 pt solid stroke, as the toolbar's Default Fill and Stroke button does for selected objects

Set items' width and height in points (Transform panel W and H) around a reference point. With constrainProportions and one dimension, the other follows. With relative, the values are added to the current size (e.g. width: 10 makes it 10 pt wider). For percentages use scale_items

Reverse a blend's spine (the order along the path) or its stacking order (front to back)

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

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

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 closed (save_and_close), or saved as an .ai copy in destinationFolder and closed (folder; subfolders are recreated). Files already open are skipped with an error. Data sets: each data set is displayed, the action played, and with destination folder the document saved as an .ai file named by fileNaming; the…

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 > Release). These features may download components or contact Adobe services on first use, so a call can take a while

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; Illustrator's own alerts are suppressed while it runs. A script that opens its own dialog waits for the user. Returns the script's last value as text. The file must be inside the allowed folders (add Illustrator's Scripts folder to ILLUSTRATOR_ALLOWED_DIRS to run installed scripts)

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 each time; Illustrator does not report which

Save the active document's brushes as a brush library file (Brushes panel menu > Save Brush Library). Open it later with import_brushes or Window > Brush Libraries > Other Library

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

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

Save the document's graphic styles as a graphic style library file (Graphic Styles panel menu > Save Graphic Style Library), an .ai file other documents can open as a library

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 ifExists: "merge", adds the swatches to an existing library, replacing ones with the same name. Pattern swatches cannot be copied by script

Save the document's symbols, or some of them, as a symbol library file (Symbols panel > Save Symbol Library). Open it later with open_symbol_library; files saved in Illustrator's Symbols presets folder also appear under Window > Symbol Libraries > User Defined

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

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

Select every object of one kind (Select > Object): all_text, point_type, area_type, clipping_masks, stray_points (lone anchor points), brush_strokes, bristle_brush_strokes, not_pixel_aligned, flash_dynamic_text, flash_input_text. Two kinds start from a selection, given as target: same_layers (everything on the targets' layers) and direction_handles (the handles of the targets' paths). The selection is replaced

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

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

Select inside groups, as the Direct Selection and Group Selection tools do: children (the items directly inside each target group), all (every object inside the target groups at any depth, not the groups themselves) or parent (the group that holds each target, one level up). The selection is replaced

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 every path whose stroke weight or opacity is within a tolerance of one reference path, optionally with the same blending mode (the Magic Wand's Stroke Weight, Opacity and Blending Mode options). Every option given must match. Unlocked, visible paths and compound paths on every layer are compared; guides and clipping paths are skipped. Colour tolerance is not offered: select_same matches fill or stroke colour exactly

Select every instance of the given symbols (Symbols panel > Select All Instances)

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"

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

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

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

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 Rulers. With no options, reports the current settings

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 the number of steps and the orientation of existing blends (Object > Blend > Blend Options)

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 stroke, no break, overprint, ligatures, alternates, swashes, figure styles, fractions, ordinals, tsume, aki, tate-chu-yoko and warichu

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 does not report whether a toggle is on, so each toggle flips the current state

Set the document's default fill and stroke, the attributes new objects get. reset gives a white fill and a black 1 pt solid stroke, as the toolbar's Default Fill and Stroke button does; other options apply after it

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; create_document_from_preset sets units and bleed for a new document

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

Set the fill of paths, compound paths, groups (every path inside) and text frames. "none" removes the fill; a gradient swatch name fills with the gradient

Enter or leave isolation mode: enter isolates one group or object (Isolate Selected Object) so the rest of the artwork is dimmed and cannot be edited; exit leaves it (Exit Isolation Mode)

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

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

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

Set the opacity and blending mode of items

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

Set Overprint Fill and Overprint Stroke (Attributes panel) on paths, compound paths, groups and text frames, so the colour prints over the inks beneath instead of knocking them out

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, Roman hanging punctuation, kashida width, and the CJK options (kinsoku, mojikumi, burasagari, bunri-kinshi, kurikaeshi moji shori, leading type)

Set path attributes on paths (inside groups and compound paths too): even-odd or non-zero fill rule, closed or open, make or release guides, and align to pixel grid (Transform panel)

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 (baseline, ascender, descender, centre) is only in the dialog and is not offered

Set up the perspective grid (View > Perspective Grid): choose a preset (one_point, two_point, three_point or a saved preset's name), show or hide the grid, set the active plane, move the plane to match an object, and flip the grid's toggles (Show Rulers, Snap to Grid, Lock Grid, Lock Station Point). While the grid is shown with an active plane, create_* tools draw in perspective on that plane. Viewing angle, horizon and gridline settings come only from a preset: use import_perspective_presets for presets saved in Illustrator

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

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 with nothing, it reports the current settings

Change the options of radial, grid or mirror repeats (Object > Repeat > Options): instances, radius and reverseOverlap for radial; horizontalSpacing, verticalSpacing, gridType, flipRows and flipColumns for grid; axisAngle for mirror. With no options, report the current ones

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

Set the stroke of paths, compound paths and groups: colour, weight, caps, joins and dashes. A gradient swatch name as the colour puts the gradient on the stroke

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

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

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

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

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

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

Change the options of existing image tracings, which re-traces them (Image Trace panel): load a preset and set any option, then optionally save the result as a preset (Image Trace panel > Save as New Preset). Returns the new counts

Set Transform panel options: the reference point, Scale Corners, and whether the bounding box shows (View > Show / Hide Bounding Box). Returns the current options, including Scale Strokes & Effects, Transform Patterns and Use Preview Bounds (set those with set_preferences); call with no options just to read them

Set Knockout Group and Isolate Blending (Transparency panel) on groups, other items or layers. Knockout stops the objects inside from showing through each other; Isolate Blending keeps blending modes inside the group or layer

Lock or unlock the document's variables (Variables panel > Lock Variables). Locked variables cannot be created, bound or deleted

Shear (slant) items by an angle along a horizontal, vertical or angled axis (Object > Transform > Shear). On a horizontal axis a positive angle leans the item's vertical edges to the right

Show every hidden object in the document (Object > Show All). Illustrator selects the objects it shows; the result lists them

Display a data set: its values replace the bound items' current content (Variables panel > previous/next data set)

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

Split each target into a grid of rectangles (Object > Path > Split Into Grid): rows and columns with gutters, taking the target's fill, stroke and opacity. The target is replaced. Optionally add guides along the grid

Cut a path at one of its anchor points (like the Scissors tool). An open path becomes two paths; a closed path opens there. Point indexes come from get_path_info

Swap the fill and stroke colours of paths, compound paths and groups (every path inside), as the toolbar's Swap Fill and Stroke button does. A missing fill becomes a missing stroke and the other way round

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)

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 Threading)

Show or hide the corner widget, the on-canvas control for rounding live-shape corners (View > Show / Hide Corner Widget). It flips the current state; Illustrator does not report which state results

Start or stop Global Edit (Select > Start/Stop Global Edit): with an object selected it starts, and edits to that object then apply to every similar object; run it again to stop. Illustrator does not report whether Global Edit is on; the result shows the selection afterwards. The matching options (appearance, size, artboards) are set in the Properties panel

Toggle a prepress view or panel: overprint_preview (View > Overprint Preview), print_tiling (View > Show/Hide Print Tiling), separations_preview, flattener_preview or attributes (Window menu panels). Illustrator does not report whether Overprint Preview or a panel is showing, so those simply switch; print_tiling can be set with show

Show or hide the transparency grid (View > Show / Hide Transparency Grid) or Live Paint gap highlighting (View > Show / Hide Live Paint Gaps). Each call switches the option; Illustrator does not report which state it is in

Trace placed or embedded images into vector artwork (Object > Image Trace > Make, or Make and Expand with expand: true), with a preset and any Image Trace panel option: mode, palette, colours, grays, threshold, paths, corners, noise, method, fills, strokes, stroke width, snap curves to lines, ignore white and view. Returns each tracing with its path, anchor and colour counts

Scale, move, rotate and flip each item around its own reference point (Object > Transform > Transform Each). With random, each item gets a random amount between none and the value given. With copy, transformed copies are made and the originals stay

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

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)

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

Unlock every locked object in the document (Object > Unlock All). Illustrator selects the unlocked objects; the result lists them

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

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

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

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)