How do you move the center point of a Radial or Elliptical graident?

[goblynn93]

edit: apparently what I want to do isn't possible with Affinity. The lack of the controls was compounded by inconsistency with how my radial gradient was first drawn by the app.

I was in Photo. I created a new rectangle and changed its fill to Radial. I ended up with a gradient that was starting from the center of one edge.

I closed Photo and created a new rectangle and changed its fill to Radial and now the radius is centered...

Still confused but at least I know what I was hoping to do I will need to go elsewhere for.

Appreciate all the responses! You are all awesome.

 

orginal:

I can't find any controls to adjust how a radial or elliptical gradient lands on the page... How do I shift center?

Thanks!!

Edited February 7, 2023 by goblynn93

[MEB]

Hi @goblynn93,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Affinity apps do not support the feature you are looking for (offset the center of a circular/elliptical gradient). You can "fake" it manually with masking/transparency but i guess you are aware of this.
There's a section for Feedback/Feature Requests where you may want to create a new thread for this (if there isn't one already).

[goblynn93]

Edited to what's below

Edited February 7, 2023 by goblynn93

[goblynn93]

10 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @goblynn93,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Affinity apps do not support the feature you are looking for (offset the center of a circular/elliptical gradient). You can "fake" it manually with masking/transparency but i guess you are aware of this.
There's a section for Feedback/Feature Requests where you may want to create a new thread for this (if there isn't one already).

I don't generally use masking and transparency and no I was not aware I could "fake" it. Which sounds like an awful lot of work vs moving an origin point.

Terrible. This is a big miss. I will definitely be requesting this.

[goblynn93]

4 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

Eh choose the gradient/filltool will just do that

Care to provide instructions on how to CENTER the gradient? I know how to make a gradient but there's no option to center it.

I am trying to create a gradient similar to the one below but much more complex.

Edited February 7, 2023 by goblynn93
add the image

[walt.farrell]

19 minutes ago, goblynn93 said:

Care to provide instructions on how to CENTER the gradient? I know how to make a gradient but there's no option to center it.

The Fill and/or Gradient Tools allow you to position the center point. (As N.P.M. just showed.)

So, find where you want the center to be, mark it if needed with Guides, and then put the center of your gradient there.

[h_d]

Is this what you want -

 

 

 

 

 

 

(using the Gradient Tool on a Radial gradient)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MEB]

Hi @goblynn93,
Just to make sure we are on the same page - you want to offset the center of the gradient or just change the origin point?
On the image below the first case it's not supported, the second is (change origin point - the green lines is just to show the gradient origin was displaced). Your description is a bit ambiguous. What do you want to do?

[h_d]

25 minutes ago, goblynn93 said:

Care to provide instructions on how to CENTER the gradient?

Turn on snapping.

 

 

 

 

[goblynn93]

6 minutes ago, h_d said:

Turn on snapping.

 

 

 

Screen Recording 2023-02-07 at 20.42.11.mov 2 MB · 4 downloads  

 

That's not the issue. Issue is apparently the controls to change the gradient are no where near the controls to change the gradient.

[goblynn93]

8 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

I think these will help you out where it should be.

I need to move the center. This is not what I need. When I said "center" its because the center point of my gradient is stuck to the edge and I can't move it.

[goblynn93]

10 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi @goblynn93,
Just to make sure we are on the same page - you want to offset the center of the gradient or just change the origin point?
On the image below the first case it's not supported, the second is (change origin point - the green lines is just to show the gradient origin was displaced). Your description is a bit ambiguous. What do you want to do?

The first one is what I am looking for.

Thanks!

[goblynn93]

15 minutes ago, N.P.M. said:

A crude example:

 

Is this Photo?

[MEB]

Here's how to change the origin (it works the same in all three apps):
   

[goblynn93]

19 minutes ago, MEB said:

Here's how to change the origin:
 

 

 

 

What's the point of having both a gradient tool and gradient fill? Frustrating that they don't both all the same ability as the other. I need to change my feature request for better wording and add one for "combine all features of all gradient tools into one tool".

This is helpful but still not exactly what I want. @MEB was able to see through my horribly worded post.

I have other resources to accomplish my goal quickly but I am trying to eliminate those resources and use only Affinity. Its getting more and more rare that I need my old software because Affinity keeps getting better. Appreciate the time you put in to help!!

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, goblynn93 said:

What's the point of having both a gradient tool and gradient fill?

You can do everything shown in the video with the Gradient Tool.

I am not exactly sure what you mean by "gradient fill" so could you maybe explain a bit more about that?

[goblynn93]

Just now, R C-R said:

You can do everything shown in the video with the Gradient Tool.

I am not exactly sure what you mean by "gradient fill" so could you maybe explain a bit more about that?

Draw a rectangle, change its fill to Gradient. "gradient fill"

Draw a rectangle, use the Gradient Tool to fill the rectangle with a gradient.

These do not have the same options/capabilities and I am not sure I understand why they both exist or why they don't both have the same capacity for changing the gradient.

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, goblynn93 said:

These do not have the same options/capabilities and I am not sure I understand why they both exist or why they don't both have the same capacity for changing the gradient.

They both exist because sometimes all users want is to set a gradient fill without needing to adjust anything that requires switching to the Gradient Tool to do.

IOW, it's just a convenience for those times when a user does not want to have to switch tools to work on the gradient.

[goblynn93]

9 minutes ago, R C-R said:

They both exist because sometimes all users want is to set a gradient fill without needing to adjust anything that requires switching to the Gradient Tool to do.

IOW, it's just a convenience for those times when a user does not want to have to switch tools to work on the gradient.

Seems like you should be able to set a basic gradient fill with the Fill option with ease while still activating the full edit controls. Don't need them you just move on and don't touch them. Or add a button to the Gradient Tool on the panel for the Gradient Fill so people actually know its there? Just seems odd to have two tools doing the same thing when they could easily be one tool with a little thought to the UI.

[R C-R]

21 minutes ago, goblynn93 said:

Or add a button to the Gradient Tool on the panel for the Gradient Fill so people actually know its there?

Are you talking about the Gradient option on the context toolbar or something else? If you mean the Gradient Tool itself, it's in the Tools panel, just like the Move, Node, Rectangle, & other tools.

(If you do not see it there, you can use the Customize Tools... option from the View menu to put it wherever you want in that panel.

[goblynn93]

32 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Are you talking about the Gradient option on the context toolbar or something else? If you mean the Gradient Tool itself, it's in the Tools panel, just like the Move, Node, Rectangle, & other tools.

(If you do not see it there, you can use the Customize Tools... option from the View menu to put it wherever you want in that panel.

I know where the gradient tool is. But the concept that Gradient Fill doesn't have the same controls is where the issue is for me. There is zero reason for this kind of confusion/duplication.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, goblynn93 said:

I know where the gradient tool is. But the concept that Gradient Fill doesn't have the same controls is where the issue is for me. There is zero reason for this kind of confusion/duplication.

How could the gradient fill option on the context toolbar duplicate how the Gradient Tool allows users to work directly on the gradient of an object on the page, artboard, or canvas using the pointer? How many different controls would it need to provide for rotation, different aspect ratios for elliptical gradient fills? What about gradients with a dozen or more color stops placed so closely together that they can only set or changed on the canvas/artboard/page with the Tool when zoomed very far in on the object?

Also, a gradient fill can be applied just to a 'marching ants' selected area of a pixel layer when using the Gradient Tool, but there is no way to do that using the context toolbar's gradient fill option because a pixel layer is not a vector shape.

It might be possible to alter the UI of the context toolbar's gradient fill option to permit all of these things, but it would be extremely difficult to do without using a huge amount of screen space, possibly more than is available on devices with smaller screens like some low end laptops.

The point here is that from a UI design standpoint there are good reasons for having two different ways to create & manipulate gradient fills, one optimized to quickly create simple gradient fills & the other optimized for much more complex ones so users can use whichever one does what they need to do with a minimum of hassles.

[Ron P.]

9 hours ago, goblynn93 said:

Still confused but at least I know what I was hoping to do I will need to go elsewhere for.

Sorry, but you're wrong. What you are wanting to do, can be done in AP, and quite easily, IF you want it to. Reading all of your and the others posts, literally showing you how, seems like you are not wanting AP to do this. You're arguments against appear to be you wanting to justify using another program. That said, if you feel more comfortable with the other program, then use it. But AP can do what you're wanting it to do.  

[goblynn93]

48 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

Sorry, but you're wrong. What you are wanting to do, can be done in AP, and quite easily, IF you want it to. Reading all of your and the others posts, literally showing you how, seems like you are not wanting AP to do this. You're arguments against appear to be you wanting to justify using another program. That said, if you feel more comfortable with the other program, then use it. But AP can do what you're wanting it to do.  

"Hi @goblynn93,
Welcome to Affinity Forums 
Affinity apps do not support the feature you are looking for (offset the center of a circular/elliptical gradient). You can "fake" it manually with masking/transparency but i guess you are aware of this."

 

Is @MAB incorrect and you can offset the center of a gradient? Because none of these posts have accomplished my goal. How do you accomplish the look of the attached image with the radial gradient tool in AP?

image source credit: https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG2/pservers.html

I don't think you actually read all my posts. "I have other resources to accomplish my goal quickly but I am trying to eliminate those resources and use only Affinity. Its getting more and more rare that I need my old software because Affinity keeps getting better. Appreciate the time you put in to help!!"

[Ron P.]

Ok, I see what you're wanting now. Here's what I came up with in just a couple of minutes. Not a one-click solution, but it's close...