Please make color control a **** of a lot more intuitive
Hi team,
I am familiar with InDesign and Photoshop. I am really trying to use illustrator on a project. I am fairly new to illustrator and am using the latest version as of 10/30/2018. I have to say the way you use and set colors in Indesign is either horribly broken (i.e., Bug) or it is not at all intuitive or similar to other Adobe tools. For example, I want to create a color gradient swatch that is applied to an image and then alter the color gradient and see how it looks. Seems simple - but I have been working to try and do this for a day now and it seems to be impossible to change a color swatch once it has been created.
Sometimes I the color gradient window is locked - sometimes not - there seems to be no logic or reason why and no way to unlock the gradient editor. I create a new gradient swatch and can't edit it. I can create a copy of an existing swatch and can't seem to reliably edit that either.
You have no idea how NON INTUITIVE your color editing mechanism is for a new user. I have now formed the opinion that it can't be that hard - so I assume it is a bug. If it is not a bug PLEASE give some indication SOMEWHERE that the color editor is locked or not and provide a mechanism for unlocking it that is obvious. ARRRGGHHHH
Peter
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Well, Peter, I am sorry it took me so long to see this one.
Not much I can help you with, except giving you an example of how it can be done in Illustrator today and explain why it works this way — if it’s not that useful for you now, it can be for others.Take a look at the file.
Select the photo object and open Appearance panel to see how the look of the image is constructed. It has a gradient fill over the Image Pixels, and this fill has one effect applied to it.
Select the fill and open the Gradient panel to see how it’s done — two stops, both magenta, one of them has 0% opacity, making it completely transparent (that’s why you can see an image underneath).
Why the Outline Object effect is applied to a fill in the Appearance panel? Because the image does not have a vector path to apply the fill to if you not force Illustrator to have one with this effect.
Try to delete the effect and the fill disappears.
Undo, try move the effect above the fill, and both image and fill disappear — because the photo is turned to a path, but after the fill is applied to a photo.
Move the effect below the fill, and the photo remains invisible, but the fill is now rendered, because the path is generated first,
Move the effect back into the fill, and now you have both the image unchanged, and an additional fill generated from the path.This is not simple to grasp at first, Appearance panel is considered to be an advanced tool. If you understand how it works, you can build very complex appearances.
An easier way it to have a separate rectangle sized as your photo, with just a fill applied.
How is the gradient done in the first place? There are many ways to do it.
I selected an object, opened the panel, clicked Linear Type button, double-clicked on one of the stops, switched the Color in the appeared sub-panel, set the color I want, closed the sub-panel, alt-dragged the magenta stop over the other one I had in the strip, and dropped it over it to replace. Then I adjusted the opacity below, repositioned stops and changed the angle.The team is aware of issues users have with it and makes steps to allow a more intuitive approach. It’d be great if you had a video of you trying, to understand what went wrong and how did you attempted to do it, but it’s to late for this, I understand.
Again, sorry for the late answer.
