Section heading in moderncv with color gradient

Question

I'm creating a new CV using moderncv at the moment. But I'm modifying the package to get a (at least in my opinion) better fitting result.

I'm looking for a way to make the section heading with a color gradient. Below is an example for how it looks at the moment. I would like to have a gradient from the left sight of the bar to the end of the last word.

The main part of the section heading layout is defined in "moderncvstyleclassic.sty" which I'm using:

\RenewDocumentCommand{\section}{sm}{%
  \par\addvspace{2.5ex}%
  \phantomsection{}% reset the anchor for hyperrefs
  \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{#2}%
  \parbox[t]{\hintscolumnwidth}{\strut\raggedleft\raisebox{\baseletterheight}{\color{color1}\rule{\hintscolumnwidth}{0.95ex}}}%
  \hspace{\separatorcolumnwidth}%
  \parbox[t]{\maincolumnwidth}{\strut\sectionstyle{#2}}%
  \par\nobreak\addvspace{1ex}\@afterheading}% to avoid a pagebreak after the heading

with the following renewcommands included:

\renewcommand*{\sectionfont}{\Large\mdseries\upshape}

\renewcommand*{\sectionstyle}[1]{{\sectionfont\textcolor{color1}{#1}}}

I already found a way to write text with a color gradient. But I couldn't combine it with a bar to the left of the text (as in the picture) and the same gradient stretching across both the bar on the left and the text on the right.

This is how I found to to normal color gradient sections:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings,patterns}
\begin{document}
\newsavebox{\tempbox}
\newcommand\tikzsection[1]{%
  \begin{tikzfadingfrompicture}[name=tikzsection]
    \node [text=white] {\normalfont \Large \bfseries #1};
  \end{tikzfadingfrompicture}
  \begin{lrbox}{\tempbox}%
    \begin{tikzpicture}
      \node [text=white,inner sep=0pt,outer sep=0pt] (textnode) {\normalfont \Large \bfseries #1};
      \shade[path fading=tikzsection,fit fading=false,left color=blue,right color=black]
      (textnode.south west) rectangle (textnode.north east);
    \end{tikzpicture}%
  \end{lrbox}
  % Now we use the fading in another picture:
  \section{\usebox\tempbox{}}%
}

\tikzsection{First section}
Some text
\tikzsection{Second section}
Some text


\end{document}

Now I need a way to combine this with a bar to the left of the text and to include this in my moderncv documentclass (but I guess this is the least problematic thing).

Answer 1

You could try this but the alignment is not quite right:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings,patterns,positioning,fit}
\tikzset{
  zero sep/.style = {inner sep=0pt, outer sep=0pt},
}
\begin{document}
  \newsavebox{\tempbox}
  \newcommand\tikzsection[1]{%
    \begin{tikzfadingfrompicture}[name=tikzsection]
      \node [minimum width=50mm, minimum height=2.5mm, fill=white, zero sep] (box node) {};
      \node (text node) [text=white, right=10pt of box node.east, anchor=west,  zero sep] {\normalfont \Large \bfseries #1};
      \node [fit=(box node.north west) (text node.south east) (text node.north west) (box node.south east)] {};
    \end{tikzfadingfrompicture}
    \begin{lrbox}{\tempbox}%
      \begin{tikzpicture}
        \node [text width=50mm, minimum height=2.5mm, fill=white, zero sep] (boxnode) {};
        \node [text=white, right=10pt of boxnode.east, anchor=west,  zero sep] (textnode) {\normalfont \Large \bfseries #1};
        \node (fitnode) [fit=(boxnode.north west) (textnode.south east) (textnode.north west) (boxnode.south east)] {};
        \shade[path fading=tikzsection, fit fading=false,left color=blue, right color=black]
        (fitnode.north west) rectangle (fitnode.south east);
      \end{tikzpicture}%
    \end{lrbox}
    % Now we use the fading in another picture:
    \section{\usebox\tempbox{}}%
  }

  \tikzsection{First section}
  Some text
  \tikzsection{Second section}
  Some text


\end{document}

Personally, I'm not convinced this is a good idea for a CV. If it were me, I would think about what this will look like after being printed on an office printer (in black-and-white) and photocopied (in black-and-white). But perhaps you are in a more graphics-orientated field than me!