Graphics Zone - Gradients

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Adobe Photoshop 6 :: How to make Gradients

by BarryHilton, Adult NetSurprise

In this tutorial we're looking at how to make your own Gradient in Photoshop. Firstly, you'll need to select the Gradient Tool on the main Tool Menu (where all the tool icons are). If you can't see the Gradient tool, find the Paint Tool, click ahd hold with your left mouse button and select the Gradient Tool from the pop-up menu.

Next, you'll need the Options Menu open, if you havent got it on your screen already, go to the Windows menu at the top of the screen and select 'Show Options'.

Then double click on the color box showing which graduation you have selected. And the Gradient Editor will appear...

In the presets find the Foreground/Background fade, in the top left corner, and select it by clicking your left mouse button. In the Graduation color bar the colors will change to which colors you have selected as Foreground/Background on your main Tool Bar.

Now we want to make a Foreground/Background/Foreground graduation (a useful one!)... First click on the bottom right marker which is located just below the color bar example (small square with grey, white and black dots... black dot bottom right)). This is currently the background color, we need to change it to Foreground. Click on the little arrow next to the Color Selector and select Foreground. Then click back on the color marker to see the result.

You should have a solid bar, Foreground to Foreground.

Now we want to insert our middle Background color to complete our Foreground/Background/Foreground graduation. Move your mouse just below the color example line... it will change into a 'hand' then click in the center, just below the color example line.

As we want this exactly in the middle... look in the Location box... if it's not set at 50%... type in 50% to center our color marker. Now we need to change our new marker to 'Background' to give the middle color in our Foreground/Background/Foregrouns graduation. Just go to the color selector and select 'Background'. Then click on our new color marker to see the change... you should have something like this...

Lastly, we need to make our new gradient active... Type in a suitable name in 'Name' like Foreground/Background/Foreground... then click 'New'. Click OK to close the Gradient Editor and your new gradient will show up at the bottom of your available gradients!

Have fun and experiment with making your own gradients... using the color selector you can make any marker any color you want, adding any number of new colors by clicking below the color example line... by clicking and dragging the 'diamonds' you can alter the extent of the color fade... Or using the markers above the line you can make transparent fades, or transparent areas in your gradient, these work in exactly the same way as the color markers below the line, but you can alter the 'Opacity' for each, from 100% - no transparency, down to 0% completely transparent.