Gradient swatches only showing solid color in the swatch panel

[crankybadger]

I am trying to move over a bunch of gradients from Illustrator to Affinity.

I made bunch of circles in Illustrator, copied, then pasted them into Affinity Designer.

So far so good!

All the circles maintain their gradients. But when I try to save the gradients as swatches, in the swatch panel the little swatch square only shows solid squares, not gradients. They still function as gradients, like I can use the swatch to color shapes and it applies the gradient, I can edit the gradient. But it only displays a solid color in the swatch panel (I think whatever the first color of the gradient is), which is less than helpful when it is a more complex gradient. I have other gradients created in Affinity that display in the swatch panel as a gradient...but why aren't these ones? And how do I change that?

 

[NathanC]

Hi @crankybadger welcome to the forums,

It looks like you're importing your gradients into an Apple/System palette which doesn't support gradients and it takes the first colour stop of that particular gradient. I've confirmed that is the case on my Ventura Mac even when creating the Gradient originally in Designer 2 and adding it to a system swatch, it only took my first colour stop and if I apply it to a new object it's just a solid fill. If you instead create a document or application palette the gradient should appear in the swatches panel with a gradient thumbnail  and work as expected.

It's unusual that you mention that the solid colours in the system palette do work as gradients when applied to objects, are you certain that they work as gradients? If you create a new document/shape and then just apply it as a fill from the swatches panel? What version of MacOS are you using? My initial statement regarding gradients not working is based off of a comment from one of the developers and also the fact that gradients don't work on a system palette on my device. 

[crankybadger]

You are absolutely right- I tested a simple gradient when I was testing if they worked when applied to shapes. It was a gradient that went from a solid color to white, which also happens to be the default gradient in Affinity when you start with a solid color as your fill and use the gradient tool. 

Adding the gradients to an Application Palette works great! Thanks so much for the help!

[frauharemsa]

Hello, I uploaded an affinity gradient palette, but the swatches appear as solid colours..... what can I do? Thank you!

Affinity 2.5.5 | MacBook Pro macOS Sonomna 14.5

Edited November 23, 2024 by frauharemsa

[Hangman]

Hi @frauharemsa and welcome to the forums,

You need to import the palette as either an Application or a Document palette rather than a System palette.

• A Document palette will only be included for the document you're currently working on...
• An Application palette will be available for any document you're working on and if Linked, available across all three Affinity apps

[frauharemsa]

YESSSSSS!!!! Thank you so much — it worked! I am very happy  ☺️

[Hangman]

That's no problem at all, I'm glad they're working for you now...