Background Gradient Fill

[saratogacoach]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out how to create a background gradient fill that would apply to all cards in a stack:

linear or circular, start color (RGB): 242,126,10 and end color: 255,183,69

A beginner, I am not sure how to set gradient fill for stacks, cards, objects.

Any references, suggestions, basic sample stacks would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

Kind Regards,

[Mark]

Hi sara,

Create a new rectangular graphic and add the gradients to it. Group this graphic and place the new background on all cards. If you want, you can set the backgroundBehavior of it to true, to make it appear automatically on new cards.

Best,

Mark

[saratogacoach]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply. I'm still at the elementary level, so when you say "add the gradients to it" I'm afraid I don't yet know how to do that in script.

Is there any sample showing a basic circular or linear gradient using a start and end RGB color?

Kind Regards,

[Mark]

Hi sara,

You don't do that by script, you use the property inspector. Just figure it out.

Btw if you have a resizable window, you should write a brief script that sets the rect of the graphic to the card rect in the resizeStack handler.

Best,

Mark

[saratogacoach]

Hi Mark,

OK. I appreciate your encouragement. Once I inserted a rectangle graphic instead of the wrong object (it had an image name instead: at the bottom left of the palette), I was able to locate the gradient in the rectangle's property inspector and create the correct settings. Set it to the bottom layer, which for now, seems to create it as background.

I'm experimenting with setting the stack's background property to true for the rectangle, so I can more easily get it to appear as the background. I tried this script in the stack, but so far didn't succeed:

Code: Select all

on preOpen
   set backgroundBehavior of graphic "Rectangle1" to true
end preOpen

I'll keep experimenting.

Again, thanks.

Kind Regards,

[Klaus]

Hi Coach,

it is always a GOOD idea to check the terms in the docs!

This way you would have found out that "backgroundbehavior" is a property of a GROUP and not of a graphic.


Best

Klaus

[saratogacoach]

Hi Klaus,

Thanks for your suggestion. Checking the docs is becoming a valuable routine for me and reading them carefully.

(Part of my difficulty finding the gradient in the object's property inspector was that I had accidentally added the wrong object. Once I added a rectangle, the gradient was easy enough to find and set.)

Kind Regards,

[marksmithhfx]

Btw if you have a resizable window, you should write a brief script that sets the rect of the graphic to the card rect in the resizeStack handler.

So I thought I would give this a go. But the following does not cause the graphic to resize. What am I doing wrong?

on resizeStack
set the rect of graphic "Rectangle" to the formattedRect of card "test"
end resizeStack

Thanks
Mark

[FourthWorld]

The rect is the full bounds of the card. The formattedRect is the bounds of controls on the card.

[marksmithhfx]

The rect is the full bounds of the card. The formattedRect is the bounds of controls on the card.

Ah, thanks. That did it. Also, I did not have the script in the right place (could have checked the Dictionary for that). I put it in the graphic and not the card. (There is an object model in my head that does not fit exactly with the way LC works. For example, I tend to think in this situation the graphic needs resizing, not the card, so the message to resize should go to the graphic.) In fact, looking back at this thread, I had a horrible time setting the gradient on this graphic. Every time I added a gradient, the color (background color) disappeared, and every time I added a background color the gradient disappeared. I am seriously in need of finding a tutorial that explains graphic fundamentals in LC (LoL, suggestions always welcome but I am sure a google search will find one quickly enough).

Cheers and thanks,
Mark