The Gradient panel's Method menu gets two methods of VectorCraft's own
beside Classic and Perceptual. They mix a linear, radial, conic or
diamond gradient's colors around the hue wheel: hue, saturation and
brightness each change evenly from one stop to the next, and the hue
angle keeps one direction, as the fixed-direction rules of
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-4/#hue-interpolation do. Hue Clockwise
lowers the angle (red, magenta, blue), which is clockwise on the color
wheels, and Hue Counterclockwise raises it (red, yellow, green).
Two stops whose hues are less than half a color level apart count as
one hue and keep it, so a color and a tint or shade of it do not turn
the whole wheel. A stop whose RGB numbers are less than half a color
level apart is gray and takes the hue of the stop it mixes with, and
black takes that stop's saturation too.
- `paint.editGradient` and `paint.setFill` take `method: hue-clockwise`
or `hue-counterclockwise`, in any case, with a space or an underscore
for the hyphen or without it; other spellings are an error. The native
file writes `HueClockwise` and `HueCounterclockwise`.
- The canvas and raster exports draw the gradient through stops on its
curve, within half a color level.
- Reverse turns the method the other way with the stops, and a Reflect
spread is repeated from the curve's stops, so both keep the colors.
- SVG and PDF write the gradient as an RGB image, CMYK and spot color
stops included, with the spot warning. EPS writes a shading in process
colors with a warning for spot stops. A legacy .ai file and the .ai
editing data get the colors between the stops as stops of their own,
in process colors, at most 256, with a warning. CSS gets those stops
too.
- The `method` error names the four values, in every catalog.
- The Method menu is as wide as its longest name in the interface
language, within the panel.
Docs: docs/mcp.md, docs/plugins.md, docs/target-app-parity.md, ROADMAP.
A linear, radial, conic or diamond gradient has a spread: Pad (the
default, as before), Repeat or Reflect, with a count of 1 to 100
(VectorCraft's own limit). Repeat and Reflect run the stops that many
times along the vector (around the turn for a conic) and keep going past
both ends, Reflect running every other run backwards, as SVG's
spreadMethod does.
The Gradient panel has a Spread menu and a Repeats field, and the
Gradient tool marks where the runs meet. paint.setFill and
paint.editGradient take `spread` and `repeats`; bad values are errors.
Presets, swatches, blends, strokes along or across a path, Outline
Stroke and Object › Expand follow the spread; Expand gives each run the
same whole number of objects, and Outline Stroke's mesh keeps the color
on each side of a sharp step between two stops at one offset.
SVG writes and reads spreadMethod: SVG import now reads a repeating or
reflecting gradient as one that repeats or reflects once, instead of
expanding its stops over the shape. CSS writes repeating gradients.
PDF writes a conic's sweep shading over one run. PDF, EPS, legacy .ai
and the .ai editing data write the other kinds with their stops
repeated across the shape: at most 256 runs and 16,384 stops (256 stops
in .ai files), and for a radial or diamond no farther than 65,536 runs
from its center, with a warning past those. PDF import now finds sharp
steps in any axial or radial shading instead of blurring them.
Docs: docs/mcp.md (Spread), docs/target-app-parity.md, docs/gaps.md.
Illustrator 30.0's Method choice in the Gradient panel
(https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/paint-and-fill/create-and-edit-gradients/control-perceptual-interpolation-in-gradients.html).
- paint.editGradient takes `method: classic|perceptual` (one undo step);
paint.setFill/setStroke take it in `gradient`, and gradient params (swatches,
copied paints) carry it when Perceptual. Anything else is refused without
editing. One edit can set `method` and `dither` together.
- The Gradient panel shows a Method menu (Classic, Perceptual) for linear and
radial gradients, dimmed without a gradient; the Dither box stays under the
stops.
- i18n: "Perceptual" where a complete catalog lacked it, and the `method`
error in all 24 catalogs.
- Docs: G13 (estimate 14–24 h → 13–23 h, after Dither's 15–25 h → 14–24 h),
target-app-parity (row and evidence), ui-parity, mcp.md, plugins.md.
Illustrator 30.0's gradient Dither, from the public documentation
(https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/paint-and-fill/create-and-edit-gradients/control-dither-in-gradients.html):
a Dither checkbox in the Gradient panel; dither converts the gradient into
pixels with subtle noise, works with gradient fills only, and follows the
Document Raster Effects resolution.
- Gradient gains `dither` (serde default false, written only when on, so
older files open unchanged and new files keep it).
- The renderer draws a dithered linear or radial fill as an image paint: the
gradient sampled a cell per device pixel or finer (quarter-octave steps,
cached per thread), each channel given seeded triangular noise of up to a
level before rounding. Same pixels every run; strokes and undithered fills
draw exactly as before. PNG and other raster exports go through it.
- SVG and PDF write a dithered fill as an image at the document's raster
effects resolution, clipped to the shape (the freeform-gradient path);
characters' fills stay vector gradients in SVG, with a warning.
- paint.editGradient and paint.setFill take `dither`; strokes refuse it.
The Gradient panel's Dither box is dimmed behind the Stroke proxy.
- i18n rows in all 24 catalogs; docs: G13, target-app-parity, ui-parity,
mcp.md, plugins.md.
Radial gradients show a dashed extent ellipse: its handle across the bar
sets the aspect ratio, the ellipse elsewhere rotates it, and the dot inside
the centre ring drags the focal point (GradientGeom.focal) for an off-centre
radial. paint.setGradientGeom takes aspect (%) and focal ([x,y] | null), and
start/end may be left out; the focal point keeps its place in the ellipse as
the vector, aspect and object transform. It renders as a two-point radial,
exports and imports as SVG fx/fy and PDF two-point radial shadings, expands
to off-centre rings, and travels in gradient params and the native format.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Colours gain a CIE Lab model (`Color::Lab {l,a,b}`, serde tag `lab`), handled through the
CMS (display, separation, conversions, gamut), tints (toward paper white), keep_model, harmonies,
recolouring, blends, Info and the Color panel. Swatch Options gets a Lab mode
(`swatch.edit {mode: "lab"}` / `{color: {l,a,b}}`), and colour params accept `{l,a,b}`.
Swatches panel → Spot Colors… (`ui.spotColors`, dialog `spotColors`) runs `swatch.spotOptions
{useLab}` (Document.spot_use_lab, default on): Lab spot colours show and separate from their Lab
values, or art linked to them takes their working-CMYK equivalents, as one undo step. PDF export
writes Lab spot inks as Separation spaces with a Lab alternate (tint function from paper white),
or a DeviceCMYK one with CMYK equivalents.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Applying a gradient swatch records it as the gradient's swatch (the Swatches panel highlights
it and the Gradient panel's swatch menu marks it). A stop given a global or spot swatch (and a
tint) in paint.editGradient / a gradient paint's stops, dropped from the Swatches panel or
picked in the stop popover stays linked: editing the swatch recolours it, in art and in
gradient swatches, deleting it unlinks it. Spot stops separate on their plate, and a gradient
whose stops are all tints of one spot ink (or paper white) exports to PDF as a Separation
shading; gradients mixing models are written in one colour space (the PDF writer requires it;
mixed models used to abort the export).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Freeform gradients carry their own points (colour, opacity, spread) and lines
(Catmull-Rom curves through points), blended by inverse-distance weighting
from each disc of pure colour. paint.editGradient {kind: "freeform", mode?}
places 4+ points inside the shape, coloured along the stops (which follow the
points' colours). The renderer samples the field on a cached colour grid
drawn as an image paint clipped by the fill or stroke. Moves, transforms,
box rebases and warps move the points; old files load unchanged.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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