I would love it if Filemaker, Inc. would allow developers to manually input gradient settings similar to CSS. This would be preferable than the current simplistic ‘color stop slider’. The purpose of this feature would allow developers to match a particular gradient found on the web.

I've come across many I would love to emulate. The current setup makes it difficult to input color stops at the exact percentage along the ‘gradient graph’ with different colors when creating a gradient effect.

The ability to input RGB or Hex variables with their exact color stops as an optional alternative to the simpler “color stop slider” would be ideal. Imagine taking advantage of all the great UI colors found across the web by simply looking at the CSS code of a particular website. Something similar to this:

/*

background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop

(0%,rgb(227,227,227)),

color-stop(83%,rgb(209,208,208)),

color-stop(92%,rgb(208,208,208)),

color-stop(100%,rgb(204,205,205)))

*/

I understand you can work around the current limitations within FM by estimating where to put the color stop using the above percentages, but it never quite looks as good as the source.  Also, using an image of a gradient is not very efficient in terms of performance.

 

Oh! And can we finally get a better way to manage colors within FM’s Inspector already? Maybe one that doesn’t look like it was pulled out of Windows 3.11!

http://www.filemaker.com/company/contact/feature_request.html

 

Gradient management isn't any better on Mac, but the color picker in OS X is one of the compelling reasons I have to look at someone funny when I hear they develop on Windows. To be fair, this is one feature where FileMaker doesn't seem to be placing much value in feature parity between platforms, which is otherwise such an important priority.