Matrix

Matrix

matrix

Description

A transformation matrix specification, used to transform the geometry of objects. Use it to specify and retrieve matrix information from an Illustrator document or from page items in a document.

Matrices are used in conjunction with the transform method and as a property of a number of objects. A matrix specifies how to transform the geometry of an object. You can generate an original matrix using the Application object methods Application.getTranslationMatrix(), Application.getScaleMatrix(), or Application.getRotationMatrix().

A Matrix is a record containing the matrix values, not a reference to a matrix object. The matrix commands operate on the values of a matrix record. If a command modifies a matrix, a modified matrix record is returned as the result of the command. The original matrix record passed to the command is not modified.

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Properties

Matrix.mValueA

matrix.mValueA

Description

Matrix property a.

Type

Number (double).

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Matrix.mValueB

matrix.mValueB

Description

Matrix property b.

Type

Number (double).

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Matrix.mValueC

matrix.mValueC

Description

Matrix property c.

Type

Number (double).

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Matrix.mValueD

matrix.mValueD

Description

Matrix property d.

Type

Number (double).

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Matrix.mValueTX

matrix.mValueTX

Description

Matrix property tx.

Type

Number (double).

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Matrix.mValueTY

matrix.mValueTY

Description

Matrix property ty.

Type

Number (double).

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Matrix.typename

matrix.typename

Description

The class name of the referenced object.

Type

String; read-only.

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Example

Combining matrices to apply multiple transformations

To apply multiple transformations to objects, it is more efficient to use the matrix suite than to apply the transformations one at a time. The following script demonstrates how to combine multiple matrices.

// Tranforms all art in a document using translation and rotation matrices,
// moves art half an inch to the right and 1.5 inches up on the page
if (app.documents.length > 0) {
 var moveMatrix = app.getTranslationMatrix(0.5, 1.5);

 // Add a rotation to the translation, 10 degrees counter clockwise
 var totalMatrix = concatenateRotationMatrix(moveMatrix, 10);

 // apply the transformation to all art in the document
 var doc = app.activeDocument;
 for (var i = 0; i < doc.pageItems.length; i++) {
 doc.pageItems[i].transform(totalMatrix);
 }
}