Today is the opening of the show «Juriert–Prämiert. Eidgenössischer Wettbewerb für Design 2006» (Federal Swiss Design Awards 2006) in Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.

Among the work of about 40 Swiss Designers and Photographers, Scriptographer.com is exhibited together with three other projects of Jürg Lehni: Rita, Lineto.com and Flood Fill.

If you are actually looking at this entry from the show, or if you just happened to come here for the first time, you may want to:

– Read about what exactly Scriptographer is.

• See some examples of what people have done with it so far.
• Browse the scripts that various users from the community have uploaded.

And if you like what you see, why not downloading the plugin at home, and giving it a try too?

The new versions of both this site and the Scriptographer plug-in are now online since a bit more than a month. In the meantime it has become clear that while this was a big step forward, we are not there yet. There are many things that need improvement, and quite a few of these can improve much faster if volunteers join the effort. Here is a list of things that you can do to improve Scriptographer:

• Write documentation. If you are an experienced Scriptographer user, you could start writing entries for the reference Reference or tutorials.
• Program. If you know your way arond C++ and Java, you could start filling in the missing bits and uncovered functionality in the plug-in.
• Debug. Is Illustrator crashing on your machine? If you are willing to provide remote access through VNC or Timbuktu and some CPU time on your machine, then the problem can be debugged remotely and solved in the next release.
• Donate. If none of the above fits, and especially if you use Scriptographer in your commercial work, you can still help by donating money. Even small donations are very welcome.

If there is another way of helping out I have not thought of, or other suggestions, please go ahead and post it here.

The Eye Magazine runs an article on Scriptographer in the current issue 60:

«Today, any engagement with process usually touches on the digital. Jürg Lehni’s Scriptographer demonstrates how clued-up designer-programmers can fiddle with the nuts and bolts of prêt-a-porter software to open up new design possibilities. The front cover of this issue shows a detail from Charlie that was processed by one such script.»

The issue is out since about two days, and now the new website is finally launched too! Things are still a bit rough around the edges, but we'll get there soon enough. Right now there are only two examples in the gallery, and four scripts in the interactive tools folder. Expect more to come in the next days.

You can download the latest beta version of the plugin here. Then follow the installation instructions in the forum.

As you can see, I have converted the old forum to the new custom built one. Some links to other posts, images formats and downloads are currently broken, I will work on fixing that later.

Now let's use the forum to discuss all things that could be improved or are still missing. But first I get a rest over the weekend.

Adobe has put online David Reinfurt's article about design, software and people who use computer based tools in unconventional ways or create their own.

It is an interesting text in which both Scriptographer and Hektor are mentioned.

You can choose between HTML or PDF.