The Hidden Gradient Uploader …

[Dr_No]

Hello again all, and welcome to the latest round of ‘Whaaaaa … !’ Yes, that's right, there's a new and (possibly) even dumber question than those which have preceded it. That question is:

HOW does one UPLOAD a GRADIENT SET to a GRADIENT PANEL in Affinity Photo? Please see screencap for the source of this query's ‘where’. I can find no panel accessible in Studio(-s), and although there is a Gradient Tool, and gradients present in the Swatches panel, I can find no corresponding Gradients panel in any section of the Studio.

Am I chasing shadows becos there is no Gradients panel to upload to? As to what is being uploaded, this is a set of 40 Photoshop .grd gradients. Is there an incompatibility that prevents uploading to Photo, or are .grd files an inherently non-uploadable filetype?

Thanks again to all for your assistance with this query. And now for Today's Feature Attraction, here’s The UPLOAD of available choice in the Studio panel … Ta-Daaaaaa!

[NotMyFault]

Affinity can’t t read grd files unfortunately  

• You can export and import palettes from swatch panel in Affinity‘s own .afpalette format, including gradients
• You can create swatches from objects having a gradient

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/Panels/swatchesPanel.html

 

[Dr_No]

NotMyFault … Thanks. I'm making the SWAG that I would therefore need to create, say, a tiny square, apply the gradient, repeat until all 40 are applied, then export all as a .jpg, import or place that file in Photos, then create gradient swatches to save in the Gradients panel … ? Is that correct or did I miss something? Thanks again.

[walt.farrell]

47 minutes ago, Dr_No said:

NotMyFault … Thanks. I'm making the SWAG that I would therefore need to create, say, a tiny square, apply the gradient, repeat until all 40 are applied, then export all as a .jpg, import or place that file in Photos, then create gradient swatches to save in the Gradients panel … ? Is that correct or did I miss something? Thanks again.

Why are you exporting?

Create a palette.

Create an object, create a gradient fill for it, add the object's  Fill to the palette.

Repeat.

[Dr_No]

walt.farrell … It's not that I particularly want to export – and your solution appears to be in line with NotMyFault’s as well. In order to do that, tho’, I'll need to create the filled objects in PS (after I load the gradients into it), then export them (perhaps as a group, or maybe as individual objects), import / place them in Photos, then use the tool to create a new Gradients Palette. Does that sound like the most logical (note: not ‘easiest’) solution to the quandary … ? Maybe the long way ’round is the shortest way home? Thanks again …

[walt.farrell]

Sorry, didn't read the part about PS, not understand that's where you're doing the operation to create the objects.

Still, that just changed the question: why export to a raster format? Why not create you filled objects in PS then save a PSD file, and Open that with Photo.

 

[Dr_No]

walt.farrell … I think I meant to say ‘filled objects’ but didn't (you know how that goes sometimes, yes?) … but to the point: The steps would then be (note: logic is being attempted here) — Open PS & load gradient files; create new document in PS with one filled object per gradient; save the .psd file and open said file with Affinity Photo. Izzat about where it's going? Other than involving 40 separate steps, it's actually pretty simple (why, I think even I could do it!) …

[NotMyFault]

6 hours ago, Dr_No said:

walt.farrell … I think I meant to say ‘filled objects’ but didn't (you know how that goes sometimes, yes?) … but to the point: The steps would then be (note: logic is being attempted here) — Open PS & load gradient files; create new document in PS with one filled object per gradient; save the .psd file and open said file with Affinity Photo. Izzat about where it's going? Other than involving 40 separate steps, it's actually pretty simple (why, I think even I could do it!) …

Sounds great, you got it👍🏼

 

[firstdefence]

8 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

including grasients

is this spanglish for green gradients 😁

[NotMyFault]

No, just my fingers overshooting a bit on the screen keyboard.

I deactivated forced autocorrection on iPad as it made too many strange choices when typing denglish. 

[firstdefence]

Another method for importing gradients is...

• Look for illustrator gradients - they will normally be in ai or eps files
• Open file, I used this one (Vecteezy) 
• I removed the black background to make it simple to select each group of gradients
• I created a new style category and renamed it to Gradients Silver
• Selected the silvery gradients and and used Add Style From Selection this populates the style category with all the gradients you have selected.

The only gradients that don't work are the mesh gradients, at the moment affinity has a meltdown when these are opened lol!

 

 

[Dr_No]

firstdefence … Thanks for that tip. Of course, it does (of necessity) assume a certain level of (a) intelligence and (b) proficiency on the part of the recipient of the technique. And now it's Dumb Question Time: When using Add Style from Selection, does the style populate the the GRADIENT intact or only with the COLORS used in each gradient? I've seen that before but have so far never used it. If each of the gradients are brought in, well then, it's Problem Solvèd, yes? Dumb question Nr 02: You mention AI gradients. Will PS gradients also work in this scenario? I'm attempting to bring in a set of 40 PS gradients, so that could have an impact. Thanks again for your input. I'll give it a shot.

[NotMyFault]

40 minutes ago, Dr_No said:

firstdefence … Thanks for that tip. Of course, it does (of necessity) assume a certain level of (a) intelligence and (b) proficiency on the part of the recipient of the technique. And now it's Dumb Question Time: When using Add Style from Selection, does the style populate the the GRADIENT intact or only with the COLORS used in each gradient? I've seen that before but have so far never used it. If each of the gradients are brought in, well then, it's Problem Solvèd, yes? Dumb question Nr 02: You mention AI gradients. Will PS gradients also work in this scenario? I'm attempting to bring in a set of 40 PS gradients, so that could have an impact. Thanks again for your input. I'll give it a shot.

Technically, at least every gradient that can be exported in SVG format (an object like a rectangle with the gradient applied) can be imported to Affinity, using the SVG file with the object as transport vehicle for the gradient. 

[Dr_No]

firstdefence … as ‘Scotty’ of ‘Star Trek’ fame may have said: “Aye, Laddie, and there's the rub!” … I can see exporting the .svg from AI, but since PS is rasterwerk, would that then render it moot insofar as applicability? One way to find out, yes? I shall give it the proverbial shot … 

[firstdefence]

Prior to your world domination schedule I thought you could have a gander at the gradients I imported. Here are the gradients I bought in as styles, have a play with them, you can create a shape and apply anyone of the gradients to the shape, you can adjust the gradients angle using the gradient tool.

 

Muted Browns.afstyles Gold.afstyles Copper.afstyles Silver.afstyles

PS. you can't use these gradients to take over the world, or Mars.

[Wosven]

4 hours ago, Dr_No said:

but since PS is rasterwerk

For long, you can add a shape/path in PS, and color it with a gradient.  It's what I uses long ago to redo logo in vector objects (I was never fond of AI and avoided using it).  Since QXP was perfectly able to read those pathes only files, and use them as we would PDF vectors, it was a nice trick.

(Sadly, ID was lacking when using those same files...)

But today, you have "smart objects" or "shapes" layers in PS, and if using them is more a pain and I regret the good old ones, you should be able to use them, apply a gradient on them and open the file in AP to retrieve the gradients.

[Wosven]

A test file (it opens with some errors, but objects and gradients are present!):

gradients.psd

 

You can also import the GRD file in the online Photopea, apply them to shapes and export to SVG or save as PSD:

 

You can either export as SVG or PSD from Photopea (if the SVG look wrong and like a simple fill, you can see in that there's a gradient):