Gradient Fill Tool

Gradient Fill Tool
This tool uses Needle and Eyedropper cursors to apply and pick up gradient fills.

The tool provides a method of editing the gradients in the dialog and also in the drawing.  You can add a color point by clicking on the line hilited with yellow.  You can delete a color points by dragging it off the line.  You can rotate the angle by dragging a point outside the bounding box and then moving it around the center.

A color chart provides RGB and HSB sliders and the ability to select and move gradient color points. You can add color points by clicking on a color line in the color chart. You can delete a color point by dragging a selected color point out of the color chart.  You can duplicate a color point by dragging a selected color point in the chart over other color points.  Note that the slots of the sliders give you a preview of the color that you will get if you drag the slider knob to a new location.

You can save and delete favorites in the dialog by using the plus and minus buttons, and you click on a favorites button to select it.

While it is not as convenient as the ability to pick up colors with an Apple color picker, note that you can use Apple’s DigitalColor Meter to get the RGB values for colors while you use this tool to duplicate colors you can see. 

When you are editing an existing gradient in the drawing, you may click with the Needle cursor in the Hot Spot provided for this purpose, otherwise you are editing the object’s gradient.  The Hot Spot only shows when the gradient that you are editing is different from the gradient of the tool. 

At this time, the tool will not edit an object in a group, and after you make a change in the color chart and release the mouse, the screen image jumps and then snaps back right.  These are two minor imperfections in the tool that I hope to fix over time.