Newest Illustrator Gradient Tool Changes, what the what? Help.

[RockyDavies]

Okay, I just now updated to the newest update of illustrator and I'm trying to work on a file the same as I have for the last ten years and lo and behold, they've give a whole new set of commands to my gradient tool.

Here's the big problem that I am having.  I'll create a couple objects and set them with gradients, then I will deselect those objects.  They should be free and clear.  However, when I try to then alter the gradient I was previously using, it alters the existing deselected objects!  What the @#$(Q*#$!!!!.  I don't want objects that aren't selected to be altered.  I want to change up the gradient to apply to a new object, not the previous ones.  I want to base the new object gradient off of the previous one as a starting point.  This was never a problem before.

Secondly, I used to be able to simply drag and drop a new color over an existing color in the gradient bar.  It isn't letting me do that anymore.  Instead, it just adds the new color alongside the existing color instead of flat out replacing it.  Why??????  I truly hate when they "fix" things that weren't broken in the first place.  Help?

For an example of the kind of work I do and how in depth I use gradients, here's a look. I need my gradients to work in a user friendly way again.  I gots work to do!

[Monika Gause]

I can‘t reproduce these issues on Mac OS Sierra.

It‘s either your system that really is not functioning well with CC2019 or the Illustrator preferences might have been messed up. You can try and rename the preferences folder to try if that repairs it.

[Ankit-Illustrator Team]

Hi ,

Greeting from Adobe.

Thanks for reporting this issue.We are able to reproduce this issue in house and sent it to engineering team for further investigation.

Kindly use following workaround meanwhile for the Deselected active gradient object : "Kindly click on the gradient bar in Gradient panel before editing the active gradient" .

Regards

Ankit Goyal

Illustrator Team

[SWRL157]

I have Illustrator 23.0.4 (high sierra 10.13.6) and the gradient bar is the issue.  i want to I just want to change a color in a 2-color gradient via drag-n-drop and now i have this fat bar with location and opacity sliders that only a responsive 50% of the time.  then i have to figure out how to just get the bar back down to skinny by randomly clicking around.  What a pain in the butt.  like the rest  of these posts, i'm confused about why you have to mess with something that worked fine.

[Steve Werner]

I'm not seeing that issue.

Have you tried restoring your Illustrator preferences as I suggested above?

How to set preferences in Illustrator

[SWRL157]

one of the first things i did and repeated after i read your post.  nothing improved so tonight i uninstalled and then reinstalled the software.   Using it tonight, it's like a different piece of software all together.  Moves quick on saves and the gradient issue was... knock on wood, "fixed" i hope.  The strange bars for opacity and location aren't there anymore. Perhaps the uninstall removed any troublesome files that contributed to the glitch and the new install brought everything up to snuff.  I hadn't done a clean install on the software for a year and the updates just kept coming.  It was good to know that i wasn't the only one with weird gradient issues and the suggestions were of use.  Thanks Steve.

[mcmxcii_cc]

The gradient tool didn't work for me too.

Not only did it refuse to let me change the direction of the gradient in a Live Paint object,

it crashed my whole system.

I've had to uninstall the damned 2019 version and revert to the more stable 2018 one (v.22.1).

[jambojam]

I am frustrated with multiple issues with the Gradient Tool in 19 (23.0.1)

1. The above problem is horrible. It seems the gradient takes precedence over the object as if it's being seen as a style. So when that gradient is in 4 objects they are linked whether selected or not. I will always dupe an object and then edit it but my edit is applied to the unselected objects with the original gradient in some global way. It is maddening and needs to be independent in each object unless I select each object.
2. I am also having issues with "Shift Key" to constrain the gradient direction not working. I work in isometric and need my gradients to be precise and constrained to the angles I have set. IT DOES NOT WORK anymore.
3. As also mentioned above RE: dragging a new color to a spot on the gradient bar in the gradient pallet. Half the time it adds the color rather than replaces it. This is primarily an issue with the colors at the end of the bar and mostly the left side. So the round spot doesn't highlight and when you drop the color it puts it on top. And you don't know this until you move it and suddenly you have an odd color in your art that you did not expect.
4. I like to sample colors in a gradient and click them in the color pallet to make the selected object that solid color. I use to get the little color pallet below the line and fill icon. Now I don't and I have to it the clear/no fill icon and then it shows up.
5. When I am using the "Gradient Annotator" in a piece of art. It has become impossible to select the ends to stretch the annotator bar. It use to select easily but now the color circles seem so big the select and move when I am trying to select the ends of the bar.

All these things have made the Gradient tool more cumbersome and time-consuming to use. And in some cases disastrous.  Please address these issues ASAP.

[Monika Gause]

Please report this to http://illustrator.uservoice.com

[Ton Frederiks]

A lot of these problems have been solved in a beta, see:

Shift hold (Constrain angle) within gradient use not working – Adobe Illustrator Feedback

[Mgrills]

Has this been fixed yet? It's killing my workflow.

[Gabeizrad]

THIS IS CRAZY. I finally updated, assuming that the bugs had been worked out and the radiant tool is so incredibly cumbersome now it took me 10x longer to do a simple gradient that used to take a few seconds. Plus, now there is about a 2-3 second delay as it renders the simple 2 color gradient.

Adobe, why do we remove functions that have been in place for a decade or longer? (Illustrator, photoshop, dreamweaver) These are my professional tools and this kind of stuff only makes us LESS loyal to a company that I have been spending $1000's of dollars over the past 22 years.

Sorry to rant, but this is bonkers!

[LOS stadomland 1]

The gradient update is a real disaster, yet another Adobe innovation which truly don't work and there is now way to go back to the original tool.

PLEASE ADOBE stop these annoying updates or at least make us able to undo these updates!

[Ankit-Illustrator Team · Accepted solution]

Hello ,

We have the fix available in the latest release. Please update Illustrator using Adobe Creative Cloud application to the latest build for version Illustrator CC 23.0.3 .
Please refer to our knowledge base FAQ – https://illustrator.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/1844590 if you face difficulty in update.
or get in touch with us at any of the other support channels – https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html

Warm Regards,

Ankit Goyal

[ekopertama]

nope. it is still happening in v 24.3.

[craigb44726618]

im sorry BUT there is nothing 'fixed' in your latest release.

I have to force quit every time I use the gradient tool... losing work every time.

Why change something that was perfectly fine over the last 10 years

As a business Adobe is costing me so much time

Please revert back to the original

[jjsiegel]

Illustrator is the worst, it used to be an essential tool but every new update makes it obvious they've cut every possible corner with their "innovation" team, if you would even call it that.

I'm trying to draw a box and added a gradient. Now I want to go back to using a solid color instead of a gradient. Now that's impossible, you cannot click on a color swatch to replace the gradient.

So I went to create a new box and delete the box with the gradient. The new box is now also a gradient box. I cannot remove it.

I draw two more boxes and try giving a different gradient to one box, to make it different from the gradient box I am stuck with. The new gradient box, when I change the color it changes the gradient of the deselected box too!

Who designed this? It's like you got a team of engineers from a clunky old corporate software company and asked them to do both UI, UX and engineering without any regard for expertise or specialisation, because Adobe products are starting to function like a crappy broken enterprise tools that are never designed with the user in mind. Even the "tours" that you click skip, they NEVER go away. Every single time you launch Illustrator or any Adobe product these stupid tours pop up.

It is awful, why am I even here, why am I even still using this tool? It will never get fixed and no one cares on Adobe side.

[Monika Gause]

jjsiegel  schrieb

I'm trying to draw a box and added a gradient. Now I want to go back to using a solid color instead of a gradient. Now that's impossible, you cannot click on a color swatch to replace the gradient.

I don't see an issue with that.

When was the last time you restarted the computer?

[jjsiegel]

That's great, so all of the issues in this thread are resolved for you? What version of Mac OS are you running and which version of Illustrator are you running? I'm still experiencing every issue in this thread despite updating to the latest version of Mac OS and Illustrator CC. This is basically stopping my workflow and I can't deliver the right results anymore. If you can share how you got it working then that would help everyone here. Thanks!

[Steve Werner]

Have you restored your InDesign preferences?

How to set preferences in Illustrator

[jjsiegel]

Why would I restore my InDesign preferences? That has nothing to do with Illustrator.

[Ton Frederiks]

Try to reset Illustrator Preferences, see the link Steve gave.

[Monika Gause]

jjsiegel  schrieb

That's great, so all of the issues in this thread are resolved for you?

I was referring to the issue you described in your latest post.

This thread is too long and confusing to me to find out everything that has already been mentioned and test it again (several I have tested when they've been posted). My system is mentioned in the thread somewhere and of course this is 23.0.4. Otherwise it wouldn't make a lot of sense to post, would it?

[Carter Reid]

I'm having this problem too.  <sarcasm>Thank you so much, Adobe, for fixing things that aren't broken.(/sarcasm>

Is it really too much to ask that tools work the same over all the programs in the creative cloud?  Do your programmers not talk to each other?  Every new release is a cluster where menu items move for no reason and unwanted functionality "improves" things.  Jesus Christ get your act together I've been using your programs for 20+ years and this never stops.

[Carter Reid]

I updated Illustrator.  The gradient tool is still garbage.