I don't want to choose the colour first

[p_mac]

I hope the devs take a look at this issue.   With the new gradient tool apparently the last point of the gradient prompts the tool to bring up the colour wheel but this tool has many other aspects such as opacity, accumulation, distance sliders, placement on continuum, all of these are important to gradients. In order to have all of this to work with one needs to take the extra step to click on the layer to bring up the window that contains all the above including the ability to choose whichever colour scheme one desires to work with.  Personally this is an extremely annoying issue and a step backwards. 

This tool should not dictate the workflow.  

 

[MEB]

Hi p_mac,
There's no need to click the layer in the Layer's panel. With the node selected in the gradient handle on canvas (so no pop-up opened in the context toolbar), press ESC to deselect the node and return back to the whole gradient editor you were used to.
 

[p_mac]

MEB thanks for your response but why would this tool be set up in such a backwards fashion. Why would you not facilitate the full menu and from there click on what you need.  Why would one be required to press esc to get to the full menu?  

This is a real departure from the way it has always worked and works in other software as well. It’s set up as though we have gotten to a place that we need to get out of so ‘press ESC’.  

When you are in the full menu choosing your roadmap of process is at your fingertips. Having to press ESC is a complete distraction and a waste of time.  

Why should a user be required to escape every time one wants to place a gradient layer in a image?

[MEB]

Hi p_mac,
I don't know the reason behind this change yet (I wasn't around lately and I'm still catching up) but I'm sure there was one - I'm still trying to finding it out.

[p_mac]

I noticed you haven’t been around lately hope that you were on a nice vacation or that everything is well.  

I have a few comments on this thread as I have been trying to get an answer to this so I will just wait and see what develops.  

Thanks MEB

[Chris B]

This was an intentional change. The menu that appears is now context-sensitive. Before, the node of the gradient would be selected and it was illogical for the Opacity and Type to be modified what the node was selected.

[fde101]

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

it was illogical for the Opacity and Type to be modified what the node was selected

Each stop has a separate opacity which can currently be set from the Color panel when that stop is selected.

The popup doesn't do anything useful that we can't do with the other controls on the toolbar combined with the Color panel.

On the surface, allowing access to the color but not the opacity from the popup seems a bit strange when the color panel provides both for the selected stop.  The popup, when a stop is selected, seems to mimic the behavior of the color panel, minus the opacity adjustment.

 

On the rest of it (such as changing gradient type) I agree - the new behavior makes a lot of sense.

[MEB]

The opacity issue with the pop-up panel was already logged to be looked at.

[p_mac]

I am seeing that there is a direction of this software that is to me, making it less user friendly especially for new adopters.  

I am not new to this software and am already disgruntled by the change to the gradient tool.  I understand that some may be quite happy to use the colour wheel as their adjustment tool but as each person has unique ways of working, having only a small portion of the the capability of this tool presented because of a node selection is incomplete. Personally I will only choose the colour wheel as a last resort to colour selection as it is so random in its approach.  

It’s like going into a restaurant that boasts of great choices and then presents one choice on the menu. If you want to see more, press esc.  

The points expressed by a few people that personally like this new form of workflow are still available with the full menu presented.  

I think that one needs to remember that great software must be great for the ‘professionals’ but also for those that one hopes will become the new users that will keep the software viable for years to come.  

 

[R C-R]

On 5/2/2019 at 12:39 PM, p_mac said:

I am not new to this software and am already disgruntled by the change to the gradient tool.  I understand that some may be quite happy to use the colour wheel as their adjustment tool but as each person has unique ways of working, having only a small portion of the the capability of this tool presented because of a node selection is incomplete. Personally I will only choose the colour wheel as a last resort to colour selection as it is so random in its approach.  

I am confused by what you mean, both about the randomness of the Color Wheel & why you think you must use it to adjust a color stop with the Gradient Tool.

At least for me, both the Color Studio panel & the Gradient Tool context menu popup color selector allow the use of any of the color selectors (the wheel or any of the various sliders) to set a stop color, & the context menu popup is 'sticky' so it retains whichever one I last used, just like the Color Studio panel.

The only issue with the popup I see is what MEB mentioned, that being no access to the opacity of the color stop in it. That functionality is still available in the Color Studio panel, so it is hardly a show stopper as it is. I assume that popup issue will be addressed in a future beta update, so even that should not be an inconvenience for much longer.