Gradient fill tool is unusable

[markstraw]

Gradient fill tool is unusable. Or am I missing something? 

Steps - 

1. Create new pixel layer. 

2. Drag out marquee.

3. Select Gradient tool from the toolbar. 

4. Drag gradient over inside of marquee. 

5. Select one of the gradient colors 

Problem 1 - can't get color picker from color or swatches panels to pick a color from a photo. 

Problem 2 - trying to pick a color, the gradient colors color section bar has now dissapeared. How do edit existing gradient fill? I do not want to start again. 

 

Start again - this time, select a Foreground and a Background color. 

4. Drag gradient over inside of marquee. 

Problem 3 - Can't seem to get gradient fill colors from Foreground and Background colors. 

 

Scenario 2

1. Select layer.

2. Add layer effect - Gradient overlay

3. Select one of the gradient colors 

Problem 1 - can't get color picker from color or swatches panels to pick a color from a photo.  

Problem 2 - can't get color from swatch   

Problem 3 - Can't seem to get gradient fill colors from Gradient Swatches.  

Problem 4 - Can't seem to get gradient fill colors from Foreground and Background colors.  

 

Edited December 11, 2024 by markstraw
edd detail to scenario 2

[GarryP]

It’s difficult to know exactly what you are doing, because I don’t understand which controls you are trying to use to do things, but if you are using the Colour Picker in the Colour Panel or Swatches Panel then you need to drag from the Picker to a pixel to select the colour you want to use and then click the Picker to use that colour.

If you can record and share a full-screen video of each problem (one by-one so we only work with one problem at a time - i.e. share one video and we can help you with that, then share another video, etc.) then we should be able to help further when we know exactly what you are doing.

For example, I’ve attached a video showing how I would do what I think you want to do in the first instance.
If you are doing something differently then you will need to tell us what and why.

Edited December 11, 2024 by GarryP
Added video.

[markstraw]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

It’s difficult to know exactly what you are doing, because I don’t understand which controls you are trying to use to do things, but if you are using the Colour Picker in the Colour Panel or Swatches Panel then you need to drag from the Picker to a pixel to select the colour you want to use and then click the Picker to use that colour.

If you can record and share a full-screen video of each problem (one by-one so we only work with one problem at a time - i.e. share one video and we can help you with that, then share another video, etc.) then we should be able to help further when we know exactly what you are doing.

For example, I’ve attached a video showing how I would do what I think you want to do in the first instance.
If you are doing something differently then you will need to tell us what and why.

 

I draw marquee. Set Fill shows Background and Foreground colors - 

 

Select Gradient Fill. Set Fill now shows only one color - 

 

At 21 seconds, you select second color on the gradient edit line then on the color picker. From there you go on to pick from a colour from the UI- you picked blue. 

When I follow along exactly. I select the first color - no problem. I then click on second color on the gradient edit line and then on color picker. From there - I do not get what you have - I cannot sample a color like you did. 

As soon as I click on the color next to the color picker - the color changes to red. 

When I mouse over the UI - the pointer is an arrow, and over the canvas, I see the gradient tool pointer and icon (same as what you had at 12 seconds when pulling a gradient over).  I can't screenshot this as the pointer disappears then doing a screenshot. I can only select a swatch color - not a color sampled from anywhere else on the screen.

When clicking anything else, the gradient is applied and can not be edited again. 

I'm on Affinity Photo 2.5 1c794 - Windows edition. 

[Obscured]

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[markstraw]

6 minutes ago, Return said:

That is correct.
You need either a rectangle(or any other shape) or a fill layer to have a editable gradient after deselecting it.

 

I've applied a linear fill to a rectangle shape - it goes left to right. 

Where do you change the gradient angle? 

I can't screenshot the gradient fill pop over. 

Not sure what a fill layer is. If I add a pixel layer and a Layer Effect with a Gradient Fill - I can edit again as well as change the gradient angle. 

[Obscured]

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[NotMyFault]

10 minutes ago, markstraw said:

I've applied a linear fill to a rectangle shape - it goes left to right. 

A rectangular selection in a pixel layer is not the same as a rectangular shape.

If you want to revise the gradient after initial creation, you must use a vector layer like a rectangular shape or a fill layer. It cannot be done in a pixel layer, the the gradient is transformed into individually colored pixels who don’t remember that there were created from a gradient.

you can add a pixel layer on top to continue with brush work.

[markstraw]

Great - thank you - what I've learnt today... 

You can add a gradient fill on a shape or fill layer using the gradient fill tool. 

That's about all that works as expected. 

I can still not pick a color sample using color picker tool from swatch panel.  

 

You should not use gradient fill on a pixel layer as it can't be reedited - a destructive workflow. 

 

 

You can add a gradient fill layer effect where you can set the angle any time. 

 

 

Add can add a shape gradient fill - but you cannot change the fill angle. 

It would be great if the angle could be changed, like it can under layer style effects. 

 

[Obscured]

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[markstraw]

I put my whole misunderstanding down to UI interface being so unintuitive. 

One needs to click and then drag, keeping the mouse button in, for the color sampler to be available. 

There is no way for a new user to know to click and drag for this to appear. 

I thought it was perhaps available only on another version - on a Mac perhaps. After watching the last video shared above again - I thought perhaps I need to keep shift of cntrl in while clicking and then somehow figured out to click and drag. No one mentioned to click and keep the mouse button in while dragging to sample a color.  

After the color is selected, you need to go and click the newly selected color in the small color circle again for the color to be applied  - why this additional step? 

Clicking on the eye dropper icon does nothing - why not make it that when you click the eye dropper icon, you actually activate the eye dropper sample tool? 

 

 

The other confusing thing, is that the mouse cursor stays an arrow when you click on the color picker when you mouse over the color selection box area.

It would be more intuitive if the cursor was to change to an eye dropper icon when over the box rather than it just staying an arrow. 

 

Cilcking on the big circle does nothing. 

Double clicking brings up the much better to use Color chooser - I activated this now by chance. 

Why is this a double click? Why not a more intuitive single click? 

 

[GarryP]

2 hours ago, markstraw said:

There is no way for a new user to know to click and drag for this to appear. 

[R C-R]

13 hours ago, markstraw said:

I put my whole misunderstanding down to UI interface being so unintuitive. 

You have posted this same thing to several different topics. Please do not do that. It just wastes everyone's time reading the same thing over & over & it will make it harder for you to find the most relevant responses & help with any issues you have with these apps.

In addition, some users who would otherwise be willing to help you with any future problems might, as many do, consider this a form of 'spamming' the forum & put you on their ignore list.

[Udo B]

This is a very interesting chat, unfortunately, it still leaves me ignorant. I try to illustrate my problem. (Using 2 monitors, I have usually the windows with color, layer, etc. on the second and the main Affinity window on the first one)

That's my start. I've included a fill layer to have a gradient there overlying the background of scull and its reflection (called "Back"). There is also a copy of the original and in the channels, there is a copy of Back as selection (reserve channel). You can also see that the fore- and background color have been picked from the original in the (somewhat awkward, but learnable) way Affinity has programmed it. Fine.

Now I activate the Fill layer and having done that the gradient tool as well. This is what I get:

 

 

 

The selection of back- and foreground color is gone, as this is a fill layer I can't access the unterlying layer to - again! - select the colors I like, so that the pickers in the gradient tool can't work at all. All right, non-destructive is not working, so I move to include a pixel gradient. For that, I activate the Copy layer and activate the selection of Back.

 

Using the gradient tool obviously deactivates the selection of back- and foreground color. Just the color selected last is still available. But okay, we have the picker option in the gradient tool, to get the colors again (again!), don't we? Selecting the first - light - color from the gradient the picker works perfectly fine. But when I now select the dark part of the gradient, the whole picture will get that color, making it impossible, to select the desired color using the picker. So my question is: how do I get a gradient over my picture that it looks like that working non-destructive with a fill layer?

By the way: this picture has been done using Affinity Photo, but I have used a fill layer after I had selected the different colors in order to get the RGB code and type that in. The color picker was only worth to get that code - at least that was the only way I have managed it after reading the handbook by Frack Treichler and seeking in the internet.

So my question remains: Why is it that complicated to use the gradient tool in Affinity? I am also using GIMP and Photoshop where it is substantially more intuitive. Sorry.

 

Edited February 1 by Udo B

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Udo B said:

Using the gradient tool obviously deactivates the selection of back- and foreground color. Just the color selected last is still available.

I am not sure what it is you want to do but to set the color of a gradient color stop (the small circle on the gradient), you can click on it & set its color to whatever you want via the Color or Swatches panel. If you do not do that, the Color panel will just show a small representation of the gradient, in your case the lighter to darker linear gradient. That is what your screenshot shows in the Color panel, not just the last selected color.

So, since a gradient can have any number of color stops you have to set each one individually. So for a simple linear gradient, you would have to select each of its end stops individually & set the color of each to whatever you want. There is no way for the app to know how many color stops you want to use or what each of their colors should be.

Of course, you can use the Swatches panel to save a gradient palette if you want, which makes it easy to use it if it is one you regularly would use.

EDIT: It may help you understand how all this works & what options you have if you check out the Gradient and bitmap fills help topic. Note that among other things you can pick colors on the fly as you set a stop's color using the alt/option key.

Edited February 1 by R C-R

[Udo B]

You are perfectly right. But when I generate a gradient fill layer, the other layers where I would like to pick my colors from, are hidden. Therefore i used the fore- and background color hoping that Affinity would keep them so that I can use them in the gradient fill layer. I'll have a look at the link you included and will return if there are still ambiguities left.

[markstraw]

Color picker improvements in Affinity 2.6 - 

Previously when you used the Colour Picker available from the Colour or Stroke Panel it would first add the picked colour to the well next to the picker, and then you would be required to apply the colour manually by clicking the well.

We are now changing this to automatically apply the picked colour to the selected object, so you’re no longer required to select the colour well.

If you would prefer not to apply the selected colour (i.e. the previous behaviour), simply hold down Alt or ⌥ whilst picking the colour on Windows or Mac, or by using the command controller on iPad.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/whats-new/?utm_source=photo2_win&utm_medium=App&utm_campaign=whats-new 

[jimh12345]

I've made several attempts to understand the gradient tool.  All have failed.  I just wasted another 10 minutes trying to create a color gradient in this hellish UI.  Setting the colors is either impossible, or too complicated for my simple human brain. 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, jimh12345 said:

I've made several attempts to understand the gradient tool.  All have failed.

It would help us help you with this if you told us what steps you have taken when trying to create a gradient, what kind of layer you are trying to apply it to, what & how many colors you are trying use in the gradient, the type of gradient (linear, elliptical, radial, etc.) you want to apply to the selected layer(s), & anything else that you may be having trouble doing with this tool.

Additionally, it may help you understand its many options if you refer to its help topic. I also found a couple of YouTube videos that might help:

https://youtu.be/NyYR0JYHhcA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lZH1O9sCek