Gradient Tutorial


1. Locate your Styles Palette. Hold down the left mouse-button on the little black arrow on your foreground style until the fly-out menu appear. Select the second option, Gradient.	2. Your foreground will now show the last used gradient. Click on this.	3. The Gradient palette will now be displayed. Click on Edit.

4. You should now have the Gradient Editor up on the screen. Click on New.	5. Enter a name for your gradient. You can always rename this later if it turns out the name doesn't suit the gradient. I'm going to make a orange & pink gradient, so I'm going to call it Peaches.	6. Click on the first marker (as shown above) to select it.

7. Ensure that Custom is selected rather than foreground or background (the box next to it will be "indented") and click on the box of colour next to it (the cursor will change to the Dropper cursor). The Colour palette should pop up. Select the colour you want.	8. To create another marker, just click anywhere under the bar showing your gradient. It will default to the last colour selected, but you can change it in the same way as above. Alternatively, you can select a colour from the bar that shoes your gradient - you will see that you cursor changes to the Dropper cursor when you move over it.	9. Continue adding markers until you have a gradient you like. To remove a marker, left-click on it &, holding the mouse button down, drag it off the bar. It will just disappear.

10. You can slide the markers around along the lines & drag them over each other to change position which will all alter the appearance of your gradient.	11. You can also vary the Opacity/Transparency of the gradient. Look under the Gradient section & you should see a Transparency section. By default, all parts of the gradient have an opacity of 100%, i.e. they are not transparent.	12. By clicking on one of the markers on either end, or clicking under the bar to create a new marker, & then altering the Opacity, you can create gradients that fade into transparency, or have stripes of transparency & full opacity. The gradient will be previewed underneath.

13. When you have a gradient you like, click on OK.	14. You can now change how it is appears e.g. sunburst, linear, if you want to. This does not amend the actual gradient, just how it appears for that use.	15. To edit/amend an existing gradient, just go into the gradient palette (as in steps 1-3) & click on edit. Select the gradient from the drop down list. To rename one, just click on Rename. To edit one, repeat the process to create a new one, just don't click on New, play with the markers on the exisiting gradient. You could also export gradients from here if you wanted to share them with friends.

Happy gradient making!
<< back to tutorials