Darty-Ai, Data Driven Design

Revolutionize Your Adobe Illustrator Workflow

Darty‑Ai is a variable‑data plugin for Adobe Illustrator®, that links spreadsheet data (Excel, Google Sheets and CSV files) directly to your documents. Automate and manipulate at scale and speed. Batch-edit texts and artwork, changing their appearance and content, export assets, and generate data-driven designs efficiently.

Get Started Get a free or paid Darty-Ai subscription

What can Darty-Ai do for you?

Text Edits

Easily update full text frames or specific text segments, adjust formatting, and ensure clean, overflow-free fitting while meeting legal and brand requirements.

Translations

Populate translations instantly – preserve formatting, adapt layouts to each locale, ensure full right-to-left support, and keep text fitting perfectly without overflow.

Social Media

Update dozens of artboards at once – swap text and images across layouts of any size, and create multilingual posts optimized for every device and screen.

Print on Demand

Personalize at scale – fine-tune colors, fonts, effects, text, and graphics for gifts, sport gear, swag, promos, and stickers with full creative control.

Packaging & Label Design (CPG)

Automate packaging variations – manage dielines, compliance labeling, and import nutrition facts or product copy directly from your data.

What can you do with Darty-Ai’s Export feature?

Raster Formats

Export pixel-perfect images – control size, resolution, background, and padding for every screen and resolution.

Vector Formats

Output AI, PDF, EPS, and SVG with full Illustrator settings – plus add PDF permissions and passwords powered by dynamic data.

File Paths & Naming

Automate file structure – generate export paths and names from spreadsheet data, template properties (artboard name, dimensions, document name, etc.), or Darty-Ai’s built-in variables and counters.

Spreadsheet-Free Export

Batch process and export template files – even without linked data.

Smart Cleanup

Automatically fix overset text and optionally remove unused swatches and symbols for cleaner, production-ready files.

What methods can you automate with Darty-Ai?

  • Align & Distribute – Advanced alignment and distribution options
  • Appearance – Manage multiple strokes and fills, colors, opacity, visibility, and effects on artwork or layers
  • Artboard Methods – Name, move, resize, and set properties
  • Arrange & Z-Order – Bring forward, send back, or change stacking order relative to artwork or layers
  • Attributes – Set name, notes, URLs, wrap, and many more artwork attributes
  • Clean Document – Remove unused swatches and symbols from the document
  • Clipping Mask & Compound Path – Make and release
  • Color Mode – Set documents to RGB or CMYK
  • Duplicate – Create multiple copies of artwork; position them using transform, align, or distribute
  • Expand – Expand artwork
  • Fit to Bounds – Size artboards to artwork bounds, with or without padding
  • Group & Ungroup – Manage grouping of artwork
  • Layer Methods – Add, duplicate, edit, move, and remove layers
  • Outline – Convert text to outlines
  • Pathfinder – Apply pathfinder effects
  • Place – Place files or graphics into a frame with advanced options
  • Remove – Remove artwork; adjust visibility with appearance or attributes methods
  • Swatch Methods – Add, edit, and remove swatches
  • Tag Methods – Add, edit, and remove tags; name artwork by tag or tag by name
  • Text – Format, recolor, and replace text; update entire text frames or specific parts using simple find/replace, template brackets {{ }}, or advanced regex (including Unicode ranges like emojis)
  • Transform Methods – Scale, resize, rotate, move, and shear artwork.

FAQs

What is Darty‑Ai and what does it do?
Darty-Ai is an advanced enterprise-grade variable-data automation system for Adobe Illustrator.
It connects your artwork directly to spreadsheet data (Excel or Google Sheets), enabling you to produce large volumes of design variations with accuracy and speed.
With Darty-Ai, you can automatically update text, swap images, adjust colors and styles, control layers and objects, generate complex layouts, and export hundreds or thousands of assets—all driven by structured data. It transforms repetitive design tasks into a fast, scalable, fully automated workflow.
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Does Darty‑Ai work with Google Sheets and Excel files?
  • Public Google Sheets – Yes, Darty-Ai can connect to Publicly Shared Google Sheets.
    No setup or authentication needed.
  • Private Google Sheets – Yes, Darty-Ai can connect to Privately Shared Google Sheets.
    A one time setup is required for this feature, authentication is provided by OAuth pop-ups or service accounts.
  • Excel Files (.xlsx, .xls) – Yes, Darty-Ai can directly read Excel files stored locally or in publicly shared Google Drive locations.
    No setup or authentication needed.
  • CSV Files (.csv) – Darty-Ai can read CSV files stored locally or in publicly shared Google Drive locations.
    No setup or authentication needed.
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How does Darty‑Ai differ from Illustrator’s native Variables panel?
Adobe Illustrator’s built-in Variables panel offers only limited functionality, often proving clunky, fragile, and time-consuming to use.
Darty-Ai takes a fundamentally different approach — offering a vast, extensible system of methods that automate the majority of Illustrator’s capabilities, while staying lightweight, fast, and easy to use.
⚙️ Native Variables vs. Darty-Ai Tags
  • Resource usage: Native variables can become a performance bottleneck, occasionally causing Illustrator to crash under load. Darty-Ai’s tags are lightweight, reliable, and don’t bloat your document.
  • Setup complexity: Illustrator’s Variables panel requires multiple tedious steps for each object. In contrast, Darty-Ai makes tagging simple — apply tags directly to layers, groups, or objects with minimal friction.
  • Targeting power: Darty-Ai includes a flexible tag search system, making it incredibly easy to target and update objects dynamically — far beyond what native variables allow.
📁 Flexible Record Naming
Darty-Ai gives you total freedom over how you name your output files and where they are saved. Use any spreadsheet data to drive record names — including conditional values, languages, product codes, or other logic.
No more being stuck with rigid naming rules — you decide how your data drives your output.
📦 Smarter Export Variables
Use Darty-Ai’s built-in meta-variables, counters, and custom fields to define file names and export paths. Want to organize exports by product, language, variant, or date? You can — with no code and no renaming required.
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How does Darty‑Ai differ from the Variable Importer script – VariableImporter.jsx
Darty-Ai 🚀 automates a wide range of Illustrator UI actions (editing text, manipulating objects and layers, handling artboards, attributes, exporting, transforming, replacing content, and more). The Variable Importer ⚙️ is limited to Illustrator’s native variable features only.
Darty-Ai 📤 can create and export files directly, whereas the Variable Importer ❌ does not export.
Darty-Ai 📁 offers full flexibility for naming exported files and defining output paths using spreadsheet values, document properties, multiple variables, and counters. The Variable Importer 🔡 has minimal naming options and cannot use template properties like artboard names or document dimensions.
Darty-Ai 📎 supports placing files using simple relative paths, while the Variable Importer 📄 requires strict and inflexible file-path inputs.
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What types of design tasks can I automate with Darty‑Ai?

What types of design tasks can I automate with Darty-Ai? ⚡

  • Text updates and content replacement ✏️
    Update names, numbers, labels, SKUs, descriptions, and any other text fields from spreadsheet data.
  • Dynamic object manipulation 🔧
    Show, hide, move, duplicate, resize, or recolor objects based on your data or conditions.
  • Artboard-based automation 🖼️
    Generate variations per artboard, adjust artboard names, and export multiple formats at once.
  • Bulk exporting 📤
    Create hundreds or thousands of files in multiple formats—each with custom names and folder paths.
  • Layout adjustments 🧩
    Swap images, position elements, fit text to areas, and adapt layouts depending on your data.
  • Placing external files 📎
    Insert linked or embedded images using simple relative paths.
  • Conditional logic 🔀
    Create rules such as “If value is X, use this layer,” or “If field is empty, skip this.”
  • Attribute automation 🎛️
    Change colors, stroke widths, opacity, layer visibility, blend modes, and more.
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What industries is Darty‑Ai designed for?

What industries is Darty-Ai designed for? 🌍

  • Sublimation & Sports Apparel 🏅
    Automate player names, numbers, sizes, team variations, and colorways for jerseys, shorts, hoodies, and training gear.
  • Packaging & Labeling 📦
    Generate product labels, ingredient panels, barcode placements, multilingual layouts, regulatory variations, and SKU-based artwork.
  • Food Supplements & Health Products 🍶
    Update flavors, nutritional tables, batch numbers, warnings, and branding variations across bottles, sachets, and pouches.
  • Print-on-Demand Merch 👕
    Produce hundreds of artwork variations for shirts, mugs, posters, tote bags, and personalized items.
  • E-commerce Product Asset Creation 🛒
    Render product variants, color swatches, size charts, promotional graphics, and templated feature images.
  • Branding & Marketing Agencies 📣
    Create large sets of banners, flyers, ads, brochures, and campaign variations driven by spreadsheet data.
  • Signage, Large Format & Banners 🖼️
    Automate layouts for roll-ups, billboards, safety signs, event signage, and directional graphics.
  • Stationery & Business Collateral 🗂️
    Bulk-produce business cards, ID badges, certificates, envelopes, nameplates, and branded templates.
  • Product Personalization Services
    Generate custom name-based items such as awards, plaques, tags, event passes, and engraved layout previews.
  • Retail & Shelf-Ready Artwork 🛍️
    Create shelf labels, price tags, promo cards, carton templates, and point-of-sale materials.
  • Promotional Products & Giveaways 🎁
    Automate pen imprints, bags, lanyards, stickers, USB drives, and thousands of SKU-based imprints.
  • Manufacturing & Technical Graphics ⚙️
    Update part diagrams, serial numbers, safety labels, schematics, and configuration-dependent drawings.
  • Education 🎓
    Generate classroom posters, charts, certificates, worksheets, student badges, and learning materials in bulk.
  • Architecture 🏗️
    Automate title blocks, project labels, diagram variations, signage sets, room labels, and plan annotation graphics.
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Can Darty‑Ai handle complex text styling and effects?
Advanced Text Replacement
  • Update entire text frames or targeted segments.
  • Use simple find/replace, template brackets ({{ }}), or advanced regex.
  • Supports Unicode character ranges, including icons and emojis.
Multi-Language Styling
  • Assign fonts, styles, and composers based on language or character sets.
  • Control character and paragraph directions per language.
  • Set dedicated emoji fonts for proper rendering.
Rich Typographic Control
  • Adjust fonts, weights, fills, strokes, underline, strikethrough, and justification.
  • Control size, leading, first-line indent, overprint stroke, and text position.
  • Apply character and paragraph styles.
  • Drive all variations directly from spreadsheet data.
Graphic Styles & Effects
  • Apply shadows, glows, outlines, and other Illustrator effects.
  • Control Appearance attributes or use predefined Graphic Styles.
  • Apply effects to text frames or their containing layers.
Smart Text Fitting
  • Automatically resize text within defined areas.
  • Supports minimum and maximum size limits.
  • Prevents overflow and ensures compliance requirements are met.
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Can I preview changes before exporting?

You can easily preview the results by clicking “Set Preview Document” and then clicking the data rows on the data tab.

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What export capabilities does Darty‑Ai support?
What export capabilities does Darty-Ai support?
  • Export Illustrator files to multiple formats, AI, PDF, SVG, EPS, PNG, JPG, TIFF and PSD.
  • Create custom file names and folder structures based on spreadsheet data, document properties, Darty-Ai variables, and counters.
  • Batch-export hundreds or thousands of variations in a single run.
  • Generate layered or flattened outputs depending on project requirements.
  • Export artboards individually or as grouped sets.
  • Export tagged assets for web and app development.
  • Export the whole document.
  • Set dimensions, resolution, quality settings, color mode, padding, background color, and other parameters for raster formats.
  • Apply PDF security settings including passwords and permissions dynamically.
  • Save files to dynamic paths, network locations, or user-defined directories.
  • Apply export presets or Illustrator settings for consistent outputs.
  • Use smart cleanup options to fix overset text and remove unused swatches and symbols before exporting.
  • Automate exports without linked data using spreadsheet-free export mode.
  • Monitor export progress with real-time status updates.
  • Receive detailed logs of export operations for auditing and troubleshooting.
  • Store and manage export presets for reuse across projects.
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How do I get started, and where is the documentation?
To get started with Darty-Ai, follow these steps:
  • Sign up for a Darty-Ai account on our pricing page. You can select the free plan until you are 100% sure that Darty-Ai meets your needs. No payment information is required for the free plan.
  • You will receive an email with your account details and instructions. Check your spam / trash mail if you don’t see it in your inbox.
  • Download and install the Darty-Ai plugin for Adobe Illustrator from the Darty-Ai Installers page.
  • Open Adobe Illustrator and access Darty-Ai from the Window > Extensions > Darty-Ai menu.
  • Enter your account token to log in to the plugin.
  • Refer to the Darty-Ai Documentation for detailed guides and tutorials.
  • Explore our Getting Started Tutorials to learn how to use Darty-Ai effectively.
  • If you need help, visit our Contact page or email your questions to .
  • Keep up to date by following our Darty-Ai Blog and LinkedIn Page.
  • Manage your account and subscription settings through the Darty-Ai licensing dashboard and the Manage Purchases Page.
  • Check out Darty-Ai’s help tab within the plugin for quick assistance and tips.
  • Click on the help ? and info i icons within the plugin interface for additional guidance.
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Is there a free version?

Yes – Darty‑Ai offers a free tier. You can download the plugin, explore its features, and test workflows at no cost.

We want you to be 100% satisfied before committing to a paid plan, and highly recommend starting with the free tier to ensure it meets your needs.

Click the Get Started button on the free plan to begin.

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Free

  • 200 Monthly Credits
  • Up to 100 columns per row
  • 1 Install
  • Credits Last 1 Month
  • No credit card required
$0
 

Basic

  • 2,000 Monthly Credits
  • Up to 250 columns per row
  • 3 Installs
  • Credits Last 2 Month
$10/month
$120 billed annually
 

Business

  • 20,000 Monthly Credits
  • Up to 2,000 columns per row
  • 5 Installs
  • Credits Last 4 Months
$80/month
$960 billed annually
 

Enterprise

  • Enterprise Service
  • Unlimited Credits
  • No Column Limits
  • 7 Installs
$450/month
$5400 billed annually
 
See more offerings, top-up credits, and full details on the Darty-Ai Pricing Page.
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