Gradient tool in Illustrator 2021

[zen0D4B]

I don't know what to call it, it has too many lines. How to get 1 line?

Thank for help me!

[Doug A Roberts]

Hard to say for sure as I can't see what you're applying gradients to, but you might want to make whatever it is into a compound path (Object > Compound Path > Make). Then it will behave as a single object with a single fill.

[zen0D4B]

Thank you! Your way worked for me, but then it was hard to edit (ungroup for example). 😞

[Mike_Gondek]

What type of edits are you struggling with on your compound path. Did you switch to the direct select tool, you can use the keyboard shortcut of A to switch to that tool. If you're not familiar with the direct select tool is very important part of Illustrator. Experiment with deselecting all, then hold down option and click on path to select entire object, without option you select hollow vector points.

[Ton Frederiks]

You can just drag with the Gradient tool to get a single gradient across all objects, but you will still see many gradient annotators.

You can also make a compound path first and drag a single annotator.

[Ton Frederiks]

I see that Doug already suggested the compound path, that is a very good idea 🙂

[Ton Frederiks]

Or just go View > Hide Gradient Annotator