Why can't the End Point of a gradient be Copied?

[rjvela82]

I have to do a Reverse, then use Copy on the Start Node, and then click Reverse again. 

 

[Old Bruce]

I think this is due to where the new copied stop is placed. At the halfway point between the selected stop and the next one to the right. Or not the 'right' but the higher location from 0 (left) to 100 (right). If we choose the rightmost there is no place to its right, no higher value. There would be a fairly large amount of coding for this one change, and that means more bugs.

[rjvela82]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

I think this is due to where the new copied stop is placed. At the halfway point between the selected stop and the next one to the right. Or not the 'right' but the higher location from 0 (left) to 100 (right). If we choose the rightmost there is no place to its right, no higher value. There would be a fairly large amount of coding for this one change, and that means more bugs.

I'm not sure you're a developer at Serif but a proper Copy function of the 100 value, means creating a new insertion in between the last stop or 0 whichever comes first and the 100 location with the Color value maintained from the 100 End location.  

[Guest]

You could use the eyedropper tool to select the colour of which ever point of the gradient you want to use. Not copy/paste, but same results.

[Old Bruce]

Not a developer, just a thimker.

56 minutes ago, rjvela82 said:

I'm not sure you're a developer at Serif but a proper Copy function of the 100 value, means creating a new insertion in between the last stop or 0 whichever comes first and the 100 location with the Color value maintained from the 100 End location.  

Plus some code to check see if the selected stop is the 100 stop, this would have to check every time. And this would have to be put into the Insert button as well.

I am not against this, just pointing out that there are difficulties in doing it.

I would much rather the developers fix all the outstanding bugs that won't let me exit from  a number field with a push of the enter or return or escape key. I would also like to see the various fields accept tabbing and shift + tabbing so I can go from one to another with out using a mouse click.

[rjvela82]

11 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Not a developer, just a thimker.

Plus some code to check see if the selected stop is the 100 stop, this would have to check every time. And this would have to be put into the Insert button as well.

I am not against this, just pointing out that there are difficulties in doing it.

I would much rather the developers fix all the outstanding bugs that won't let me exit from  a number field with a push of the enter or return or escape key. I would also like to see the various fields accept tabbing and shift + tabbing so I can go from one to another with out using a mouse click.

 

No because the 100 value is a constant. Moreover, the code is already checking which ID the node is along with its position when copying so the scenario would be considered in compliance.

[rjvela82]

22 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I would much rather the developers fix all the outstanding bugs that won't let me exit from  a number field with a push of the enter or return or escape key. I would also like to see the various fields accept tabbing and shift + tabbing so I can go from one to another with out using a mouse click.

I feel the same way as you, but the gradient tool is a rudimentary part of Affinity Designer. The community has been asking for it to be overhauled, reimagined, reinvented, whatever and it needs to be. 

Consider the fact that 4K monitors are now more prevalent than ever and on such a high resolution screen you are forcing users to focus in one little area of the screen. It is not a good experience.

This brings up another grievous point I have with the Gradient tool.

An issue where the Opacity is not being maintained upon color change.  A user has to re-initialize the opacity either in the value field or the control to reapply the desired opacity. Whatever programming reasons existed for this, it doesn't matter because there is no reason to constrain the user's process by forcing them to select the color before selecting opacity.

I don't like getting into programming discussions either, hell I dont even like having to come to the community to complain, but its a given that development frameworks provide toolkits to address these scenarios but developers sometimes unwittingly choose to be hyper-efficient and will refuse to believe that some level of verbose programming shouldn't be handled with garlic and stakes to someones heart. 

 

If a Serif developer is reading this, pls consider addressing this problem. The proper fix is that the current behavior be exactly maintained as it is now, and the only difference is that the user no longer needs to re-initialize the opacity value in the gradient nodes. In other words, don't pass the opacity directly to the color selection, handle so only the gradient tool will show nodes with opacity.

 

[Old Bruce]

15 minutes ago, rjvela82 said:

This brings up another grievous point I have with the Gradient tool. ...

This should really be separate request if you want to get it noticed.

[fde101]

16 hours ago, rjvela82 said:

An issue where the Opacity is not being maintained upon color change.  A user has to re-initialize the opacity either in the value field or the control to reapply the desired opacity. Whatever programming reasons existed for this, it doesn't matter because there is no reason to constrain the user's process by forcing them to select the color before selecting opacity.

This appears to be a bug rather than a feature request.

The actual gradient tool (found amongst the tools along the left side of the window unless you moved/customized it) allows you to directly manipulate the colors of the points along the gradient using the Color and Swatches panels, and when doing so the opacity is maintained when changing the color.

It is only the popup gradient editor thing that exhibits this strange behavior.

 

EDIT: sorry, this is Designer - I was looking at Photo when I wrote this.  The "gradient tool" in Photo is called the "fill tool" in Designer and Publisher.

[Old Bruce]

5 hours ago, fde101 said:

It is only the popup gradient editor thing that exhibits this strange behavior.

Yes the one on the Context Toolbar won't keep the opacity when I change the colour of the stop. The opacity is reset to 100.