Darty-Ai — Product catalogues
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1. Unzip
Extract the entire ZIP to a local folder. Keep Assets, AI Templates and Excel Sheets together.

2. Open Darty-Ai
In Adobe Illustrator 2025 or newer with Darty-Ai 2.5, open the Darty-Ai panel and choose Data.

3. Load the spreadsheet
Choose this Excel workbook from Excel Sheets. Select the first worksheet, Darty Designs.

4. Preview
Turn Preview on in the traverser table. Select a data row or use the previous/next controls. The template column selects the correct AI template automatically.

5. Create AI files
Use Darty-Ai Export, select the records, choose Illustrator (.ai) and an output folder, then export. Keep generated files separate from AI Templates.

Edit the data
Edit record values in Excel, save, and reload the workbook in Darty-Ai. Rows 1–4 are Darty-Ai headers; records begin on row 5.

Fonts
Install or activate the fonts listed below, or choose your own fixed fonts in the Illustrator template before exporting. Font files are not included.

Required fonts
Arial-BoldMT, ArialMT, Georgia, Georgia-Bold

Included records
3

Portable files
All file references are relative to this workbook. Move or copy the entire kit as one folder. Use the extracted workbook, not an email or ZIP preview.

Shared settings
Fixed typography, justification, colors and table rules live in the Illustrator template. Row 3 supplies defaults needed by variable operations, such as a common asset folder. Empty record cells use that default; enter a value only to override it. Text replacement targets frames without searchText, so the redundant @ mode is omitted.

Start with placeholders
AI Templates contain the layout, fixed formatting and managed table styles. Preview applies the selected record’s variable text, images, codes and table data. Each template has at least three variations; step through consecutive rows to see the same layout change.

Three catalogue pages
The three records produce City, Tour and Cargo pages from one template. Each changes the product photograph, description, specifications, prices and colour theme. Export all three records for the complete collection.

Example brands, people and data are fictional.


Table workflow update — 2026-10-25
Tables use readable column[A], column[B] and indexed range controls. Counts are inferred from content. Shared text settings include shrink-to-frame fitting. Colours use readable channel values. Artwork measurements use at most one decimal place; prices, nutrition and code payloads keep their original values.


OCTOBER 26, 2026 AUTHORING UPDATE
All Illustrator templates use CMYK document mode. Fixed formatting is stored in
the templates. Shared changes use named global CMYK swatches or shared tags;
swatch channels are integers. Common folders are in workbook header defaults;
record cells contain filenames. Keep all kit folders together. See
TEMPLATE_AND_SPREADSHEET_AUTHORING.md for the rules and verified defaults.
