[AppleScript, InDesign CS6] Hex Color Paste – Script for Adobe InDesign CS6, which converts a hex color like "A107E6" to Red: 161, Green: 7, Blue: 230 and pastes the values in the color fields.

howto.md

HexColorPaste for Adobe InDesign CS6

How to use

• Open Terminal and run chflags nohidden ~/Library to show your library folder in Finder
• Run killall Finder to close all Finder windows, so we can actually see the folder
• Navigate to ~/Finder/Scripts
• Download InDesignCS6_HexColorPaste.scpt and copy it to `~/Library/Scripts``
• Download FastScripts, a freeware to run AppleScripts using shortcuts from here
• Install, Start and go to Preferences
• Navigate to /Users/yourname/Library/Scripts, there you should find the downloaded script
• On the right you can create a shortcut to launch the script
• Now copy a hexcode to the clipboard, i.e. 00AAFF
• In InDesign CS6, create a new color if you want
• Now double click on the color you want to paste the hex code in
• The text cursor should be left in the name field
• Run the script by using the newly created shortcut
• The hex-color should be filled in now...

InDesignCS6_HexColorPaste.scpt

-- Powder
-- v. 1.0

-- Applescript for InDesign (CS6). 
-- Converts hex codes to decimal values and fills them 
-- in the forms in InDesign's color menu
-- Usage:
-- 1) Copy a hexcode to the clipboard like "A100FF" 
-- Copy a colour hex-code like
-- 2) (optional) Create a new color
-- 3) Double click the color you want to edit
-- 4) Run the script, it fill convert the hex code to 
-- individual decimal values and fill them in for you.
-- The text cursor needs to be in the textfield "color name"

set hex_code to the clipboard
set hex_code_length to length of hex_code
if hex_code_length is not equal to 6 then
	log "No valid hex-code in clipboard – " & hex_code
	-- TODO: check if string is a real hex code –> [0-9A-F]
	return
end if

set r_hex to ((characters 1 thru 2 of hex_code) as string)
set r_dec to fromHex(r_hex)
set g_hex to ((characters 3 thru 4 of hex_code) as string)
set g_dec to fromHex(g_hex)
set b_hex to ((characters 5 thru 6 of hex_code) as string)
set b_dec to fromHex(b_hex)

tell application "System Events"
	tell process "InDesign"
		set frontmost to true
		keystroke tab
		keystroke r_dec
		keystroke tab
		keystroke g_dec
		keystroke tab
		keystroke b_dec
		keystroke tab
		delay 1
		keystroke return
	end tell
end tell

-- fromHex function by David Livesay
on fromHex(str)
	set n to 0
	set i to 1
	repeat with a in reverse of every text item of str
		if a is greater than 9 or a is less than 0 then
			set a to ASCII number of a
			if a is greater than 70 then
				set a to a - 87
			else
				set a to a - 55
			end if
		end if
		set n to n + a * i
		set i to i * 16
	end repeat
	return n
end fromHex