Gradient stroke shading not triggering error in Action List

[Steve_G]

Hi everyone,

In today's episode of "Steve can't make something work" I'm trying to check if a PDF has gradients with spot colors applied. My action list has a "Select shading objects" line, followed by a "Check Spot Colors not used" action:

Screen Shot 2024-07-26 at 4.05.45 PM.png (91.84 KiB) Viewed 13018 times

The part I'm struggling with is that it selects elements in the PDF with a gradient fill and puts an error in the report, but doesn't select anything with a gradient stroke. Is there a way to have it select the strokes like it does the fills so I can also have that in the report?

[Steve_G]

After a weekend away from the problem I figured it out, posting here in case anyone else would benefit from it.

I opened the file in question in Pitstop and inspected it, turns out that a gradient fill and a gradient stroke use two different methods to implement them.

A gradient fill is made into it's own Shading Object, with any associated stroke as a separate object in the stack (in this case it was a simple black outline):

Screenshot 2024-07-29 at 1.04.26 PM.png (71.36 KiB) Viewed 12743 times

A gradient stroke is defined as a Smooth Shading Pattern, however:

Screenshot 2024-07-29 at 1.04.38 PM.png (75.25 KiB) Viewed 12743 times

I then used the "Select DeviceN with Attributes" action with spot color definitions checked to select them and logged that selection as an error.