The Vector Doctor said:
gradients can be tough to match. There are lots of variables such as direction, starting and ending point colors and some have other color stops at various points along the gradient with different color values
Yeah, gradients can be a real can of worms.
Normal linear or spherical gradients can be enough of a pain. I wish the Gradient Annotator in Adobe Illustrator worked more like the one in CorelDRAW. The one in CorelDRAW is a lot easier to control. You can snap either end of a linear gradient to other objects or guidelines. I have to fight with the one in Illustrator to get the results I want. In recent years Illustrator and CorelDRAW have added the capability to skew and distort gradients. So that's another variable that's tough to match.
Gradient meshes got added to Illustrator in the late 1990's. Freeform gradients were added just a few years ago. Both can be extremely difficult (and time consuming) to match accurately.
DL Signs said:
I used to too... Then I started using Affinity. It makes doing gradients and masking with blurs for those hard to hit ones so easy, and it's all live preview so you can adjust & tweak things as you go and see what's changing as you change it.
I'll agree it's very easy to edit gradients in Affinity Designer. The on-object "annotator" (Illustrator's term) is very easy to adjust, much more so than the one in Illustrator. Affinity Designer even supports conical gradients,
while Illustrator does not.
But Affinity Designer doesn't have as many adjustment parameters on the gradient types it supports. For instance, you can change an elliptical gradient to a non-uniform aspect ratio, but you can't also skew the fill like you can in CorelDRAW or Illustrator. Affinity Designer doesn't support Gradient Meshes or Freeform Gradients. That can be a problem when importing certain kinds of Adobe Illustrator-generated artwork.