Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

DoRon Banu Motter

Michael Kallay

Peter Faraday

Charles Robert Stoner

An apparatus and method provide for generation of a gradient or other image pattern based on a captured image. In one example, a portion of a displayed image may be selected. The selected portion of the displayed image may include an image pattern such as a gradient. The selected image pattern may be applied to a gradient tool such that the image pattern may be stored as a series of gradient stops. Any of the gradient stops may have an associated characteristic of the image pattern such as, for example, a color or position within the selection of a corresponding pixel of the image. The generated gradient or image pattern may be applied to any object or displayed component.

Acquiring a series of gradient stops from a bitmap source

In order to work with user interface documents containing instances of reusable templates which describe both the appearance and behavior for a user interface element, editing functionality is provided. The user interface document can be edited by selecting items from a view of the user interface document and indicating an edit to be performed. Edits may be to an underlying template or templates, or to properties of selected items. The scope of the edit is determined by user indication and/or defaults of user preference. Locks are provided in order to prevent accidental editing of some locked element or template. A graphical tree view, a list view (text-based tree view), or an artboard view may be presented to a user in order to facilitate the selection and editing process.

In situ user interface template editing

A curve may be reshaped by determining new locations for its control points that minimize some measure of the change in the curve (typically, the 'energy' of the change), while meeting the specified editing constraints. For example, a designer or other user may indicate an editing constraint by selecting a point anywhere on a curve and moving it to a new location. In response, the unconstrained control points may be moved automatically and simultaneously to optimal new locations. The resulting change in the curve may be aesthetically pleasing and satisfy the editing constraints. This curve editing technique may allow designers to be more productive by providing predictable and intuitive results while enabling curves to be directly manipulated.

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

DoRon Banu Motter