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Fills and gradients

Checked in Polyform 0.9.0-beta.31 ·

On this page
  1. Change a colour
  2. Several fills
  3. Gradients
  4. Image fills
  5. Colour styles, and strokes

A layer’s fills are in the Inspector’s Fill section. Each is a solid colour, a linear, radial or angular gradient, or an image, with its own opacity, and one layer can have several.

Change a colour

Select a layer, click the hex value under Fill, type a new one, and press Enter. For example, type 4F9EFF. The colour changes as you type it in, and is one undo step.

Each fill’s row has, from left to right:

  • the colour square, which opens the colour picker;
  • the hex value;
  • the opacity, from 0% to 100%;
  • the eye, which hides the fill without removing it;
  • the minus, which removes it.

Several fills

Click + beside Fill to add another fill to the layer. It is light grey (D9D9D9) until you change it, and it goes at the bottom of the list.

The last fill in the list is painted on top. That is the opposite of the Layers panel, where the top row is in front. A fill at less than 100% lets the ones above it in the list show through:

A blue rectangle inside a white frame, with a coral fill at 40% painted over its blue, so it looks lilac. The Inspector's Fill section lists 4F9EFF at 100%, then FF7A59 at 40%. Open the full-size picture

Fills can’t be dragged into another order yet. To swap two, swap their colours.

Gradients

Click the colour square at the start of a fill’s row to open the colour picker. Along its top are the kinds of fill: Solid, Linear, Radial, Angular and Image (point at one for its name). A solid colour turned into a gradient starts as that colour fading to clear, from top to bottom.

The colour picker open on the rectangle's fill, set to Linear: the stop bar, the angle 90°, Reverse, Rotate 90° and Distribute, the two stops (4F9EFF at 100% and at 0%), and the colour area editing stop 1. On the canvas the rectangle fades from blue at the top to clear at the bottom, with the gradient's two handles on it. Open the full-size picture
  • The stops are the colours along the gradient. Click a stop to edit its colour in the area below, drag it along the bar to move it, and drag it off the bar to remove it. + beside Stops adds one. A gradient has from 2 to 8 stops.
  • The angle turns a linear gradient: 0° runs left to right, 90° top to bottom. For an angular gradient it is where the sweep starts. A radial gradient has none.
  • Reverse flips the stops, Rotate 90° turns the gradient, and Distribute spaces the stops evenly.
  • On the canvas, while the picker is open, the gradient’s handles sit on the layer: drag them to move its ends.

Close the picker with its ×, Esc, or a click outside it. Everything you did while it was open is one undo step.

The Fill row shows a gradient as, for example, “Linear · 2 stops”, with its stop bar and angle under it, so small changes don’t need the picker.

Image fills

The picker’s last type, Image, fills the layer with a picture. Choose one, and the row then says how it fits the layer: Fill, Fit, Tile or Stretch. Under the row are the crop, exposure, contrast and saturation, and Remove background.

Colour styles, and strokes

To use one colour in many places, make it a colour style. The four-dot button beside Fill’s + opens the colour styles: Create style from this fill, or pick a style to link the fill to it. A linked fill shows the style’s name instead of a hex value, and changes when the style does.

Stroke, under Fill, works the same way: its rows have the same colour square, hex value, opacity, eye and minus, and the same picker.