If I make the "start circle" contain the "end circle" and use a non-repeating gradient with EXTEND_PAD, then on X at least I get a solid fill with the first stop color. There doesn't seem to be anything in the documentation justifying this behaviour: <a href="http://cairographics.org/manual/cairo-pattern.html#cairo-pattern-create-radial">http://cairographics.org/manual/cairo-pattern.html#cairo-pattern-create-radial</a> although in truth the documentation doesn't say much about radial gradients at all. The Quartz backend treats the circles symmetrically, so it draws the gradient moving inward from the start circle to the end circle, with the first stop color filling outside the start circle and the last stop color filling inside the end circleThis seems a little more logical to me. What is the correct behaviour? Rob -- "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." [Isaiah 53:5-6]