GtkGradient is a boxed type that represents a gradient. It is the result of parsing a <link linkend="gtkcssprovider-gradients">gradient expression</link>. To obtain the gradient represented by a GtkGradient, it has to be resolved with gtk_gradient_resolve(), which replaces all symbolic color references by the colors they refer to (in a given context) and constructs a cairo_pattern_t value. It is not normally necessary to deal directly with GtkGradients, since they are mostly used behind the scenes by GtkStyleContext and GtkCssProvider.