Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 7/12/2010

Question
Hey there,
So I've been using Illustrator for years myself and so far it seems like the only real problem I've ever had with it is this:
Sometimes when i make a gradient on an object and save it, upon opening the file back up, the gradient is magically replaced with the "rainbow gradient".  It drives me out of my mind, cause many of the gradients I'm making are pretty complex and i need them to save that way.  Is there something I'm doing or not doing that is causing this gradient replacement?  Thanks!!

Answer
Hi Steve,

According to Adobe, this is a bug that exists in Illustrator 9 through Illustrator CS2.

And was it ever an odd one. The problem was that it is so hard to have this error happen, that most people were not able to report accurately what caused the bug to occur.

Some digging has found it has to do with undoing and editing gradients after you have applied them. It will only happen for unnamed gradients that do not appear in the Swatches palette. So the easy solution is after you have edited and applied a gradient, add it to the swatches panel. If you edit a gradient after a swatch is created, replace or add a new swatch.

You will have to recreate all abnormal gradients that have already broke, but this should solve it from here out.

Thanks

Kevin