Theme Colour/Gradient on Controls

[MichaelWDenney]

Does the theme colour/gradient on controls not quite fill the entire control? This is noticeable on toggled controls and command groups (note the grey frame around the edges).

[kirill-grouchnikov]

Assuming that you're referencing the top part of these buttons, what you're seeing here are the visuals of the specular surface painter that aims to emulate a diffused specular highlight from a top-down light source. If these visuals are not to your liking, you can use another surface painter in your custom skin. Different core Radiance skins use different visuals for surface painters, and you can see those different usages in that package.

[MichaelWDenney]

I'm referring to the top and sides (the sides blend in as you move down). So that is intentional to give a bit of a 3D look, kind of as if a slight shadow has been created? I guess I can buy that. Somebody in our art department pointed it out. Being slightly colour blind, I never really noticed.

I haven't had the opportunity to experiment with custom skins yet. When I do I'll take a look at the options. Thanks.

[kirill-grouchnikov]

Yes, I've been trying to make the specular highlight work within the confines of a 2D rendering engine that hasn't seen any performance improvements in the last 16 years. Ideally this would be done by a shader, but chances to get a proper shader pipeline in Java2D are pretty much non existent.

What skin are you using? Business? If so, then you get its usage of the specular surface painter here. And you can override that if you extend that skin, or make a completely custom one for your app.

[MichaelWDenney]

Yes, we are currently using Business. Eventually, we would like to offer a few skins for the users to choose from. Was that 'here' intended to be a link?

[kirill-grouchnikov]

"Here" as in "Business skin" - https://github.com/kirill-grouchnikov/radiance/blob/sunshine/theming/src/main/java/org/pushingpixels/radiance/theming/api/skin/BusinessAccentedSkin.java#L93

In a custom skin you can control presence and "strength" of that specular highlight, making it more subtle, or just not have it altogether.