Why won't Arc Pro gradient polygons fade to transparent?

[JohnBranum]

(I think) I've tried everything, but can't get the polygon gradient fill to fade outwards to transparent when Pattern Direction is "Buffered".  It simply fades to the other color regardless of that color's transparency.  If i "flip color scheme" (Format Polygon Symbol pane) it will properly fade inwards to transparent, but it appears to not recognize the transparency when flipped "outward".

The large green polies below should be fading away at their boundaries (while the smaller ones would fade more abruptly since i'm using Relative Pattern Extent).

If i change the fading color, the gradient just fades to that full color, even when it's set to transparent/no-color.  Thoughts...?

[Taren_Esri]

Hi @JohnBranum 

I just did a test on my side matching your parameters and the thing that seemed to cause the polygon to "fill in" was setting the size to 6%. At the default value (75% in my case) the gradient showed as expected. If you are still having issues after making that change, try opening the color scheme properties, and ensure your ramp has a steady gradient increase across the color ramp, as shown below. Your chosen color for the ramp should be 0% transparent, and the transparent portion should be set to 100%.

Best,

Taren

[JohnBranum]

Taren, thanks so much for the immediate response!  Unfortunately, i've been through your suggestions already, and they're not the issue.  The percentage doesn't matter (i noticed you put "fill in" in quotes, maybe implying that it only appears to be filled-in, but this is actually filled-in).  I set my gradient parameters to what you've got in your image and verified that that works as expected; however, in that configuration, the fade is inward (the solid color is at the poly boundary, then fades-out to the center), which works as you'd expect.  The problem arises when you "flip" the color scheme (two-triangles button) to instead fade the poly from center-outward.  For some reason it then ignores the transparency.  Are you able to create that on your end?

Here's my original image but with the transparent color initially white, which illustrates the result better:

The gradient fades to the other color regardless of its transparency setting.

[JohnBranum]

So is it safe to assume that this is actually can't be done in Pro 2.9?

[MorganSwingen1]

I am having the exact same issue - polygon gradient fill will fade to transparent if the transparent color is on the inside, but not at the boundary of the polygon. Seems to be a weird bug? I am using ArcPro 3.0

[JohnBranum]

Exactly, Morgan.  What's extra weird about it is that this is a very useful, and very common, effect to use, so i assume people are just stacking diminishing transparent polygons as a work-around since this doesn't work.  Either that, or there's a solution we're missing...?

I'm on 2.9, so yeah, i'm bummed to hear it wasn't solved in 3.0, but good to know.

[MorganSwingen1]

I figured out a workaround today that worked for me - instead of having the outside color be fully transparent, I changed it to white, and then I applied the "Multiply" Blend Mode. Silly to have to do it this way, but maybe it will work for you too?

[JohnBranum]

Clever!  I'll have to give that a shot.  Thanks.

[Markbe_utco]

I too am having this same issue, but this time trying to fill layout elements with a gradient fill.  I can get the inside of the gradient to be transparent but when flipped the outside stays opaque.

[JohnBranum]

Yep, it appears it's a glitch.  Basically, the feature doesn't honor the "no color" selection with the fade reversed.  I also tested MorganSwingen1's "multiply" suggestion with no useable success.  It's strange because i feel like this is a pretty common presentation of polygons, similar to a heat map, but it's just not available in Pro.