Well, the effect that I'm asking about seems to be the same in the downloaded "fill" example. The "origin" of the lines or circles changes when I select an object and enter the properties of the applied gradient swatch (and just turn on preview).
On the external sample I just noticed that the changes made to the fills must be that they have manually set origins and "lengths" (I don't know the correct terms) for the gradients. Using the gradient tool I can restore the looks of the original fill that was obviously reset when I reapplied the swatch (or just watched the looks of it being reapplied using the preview option).
I never used the gradient tool on my own circles though, so there it must be some other change that I've made that has affected the origin or range of the gradient stroke.
Hi Andreas,
you must be aware that on one hand we have the gradient like you see it in the Swatches panel.
On the other hand there is the graphic frame where the gradient is applied to.
Trivial?
Not, if you consider the following:
The look of the applied gradient is shaped by a triple of properties of the graphic frame.
Not of the gradient.
Three properties that come along with the fill and three that come along with the stroke of a graphic frame.
Setting e.g. the fill to "none" will not reset the values for that three properties.
EDIT: Setting the fill to a non-gradient swatch will not reset the values either.
The three values are:
gradientFillAngle will define the angle of a linear gradient
gradientFillLength will span the 0% to100% of your gradient stops.
gradientFillStart will define the start of an applied gradient in x/y values
With the Gradient Tool one can manipulate the three properties.
Depending on the type of a gradient—linear or radial—the three properties may react differently.
The same properties do exist for strokes:
gradientStrokeAngle
gradientStrokeLength
gradientStrokeStart
And what makes this case more complex is:
1. We also have to consider, if some scaling, rotation or shear transformations are applied to the graphic frame.
2. Changing the size of a graphic frame will not change the values for the three properties.
And by changing the size I do not mean scaling. Rotation and shear will not change the size.
What has all this to do with your problems?
Maybe you resized a circle and then applied a new gradient?
Or you changed the shape of a rectangle to a circle where you once applied a gradient, changed the defaults using the Gradient tool, applied fill color "None" and forgot about it?
If you want to make sure that a specific "look" is applied by using a gradient, make sure that you start from scratch with a new graphic frame. Otherwise you cannot be absolutely sure, that one of the three properties will not start at their default values.
Regards,
Uwe
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