Working with Gradients in Photoshop 6

To really take advantage of the power of gradients, it's necessary to create your own gradients. One of the easiest ways to do so is to edit existing gradients. In this installment, we'll look at the anatomy of the Gradient Editor dialog box. At first glance, that dialog box is daunting, but once you understand the basics, editing and creating gradients is a snap.

With the Gradient tool active in the Toolbox, you'll see a sample of the currently-selected gradient in the Options Bar. Click once on the gradient sample in the Options Bar to open the Gradient Editor dialog box.

The dialog box, shown below, looks pretty complicated at first glance. It is really rather simple.

The upper portion of the dialog box is actually the complete Gradient Palette. Thumbnails of all currently-loaded gradients are shown, along with the Gradient Palette's menu.

However, if you compare the menu above to that shown below, you'll see several differences. For example, when accessed through the Gradient Editor, the Gradient Palette menu does not offer the Load, Save, Replace, Delete, or New commands.

Load and Save are available in the Gradient Editor dialog box itself, and New Gradient is handled through the editing process we're about to explore. The Replace and Delete commands, what can be considered "palette maintenance commands," are only available through the regular Gradient Palette menu.

Choose the gradient that you want to edit or from which you want to create a new gradient. For this example, we'll show the gradient "Copper." (If Copper doesn't appear in your Gradient palette, use the palette's menu command Reset Gradients.)

There's no need to assign a new name at this point or to click the New button. The Editor will automatically preserve the original gradient. As soon as you start making changes, the name will change to Custom. After the changes are complete, name the new gradient and add it to the palette by clicking the New button. (Remember, too, that collections of gradients aren't saved until you use the palette menu's Save command.)

Let's take a look at the lower half of the dialog box.

At this point, we'll work only with Solid gradients. The Smoothness slider, which ranges from 0% to 100%, affects the suddenness of the transition from one designated color to the next. As you can see in the example below, the lower levels of Smoothness produce narrower, more evident areas of the specific, designated colors. (Look, for example, at the vertical streak of white about one-third in from the left, and the dark streak near the right side of the image.)

Smoothness applies to the entire gradient, not specifically-designated sections of the gradient.

Below the Smoothness slider is the sample gradient. It is updated live, as you work. Notice the triangles above and below the gradient sample. They are known as "stops." Those above the sample control opacity; those below the sample control color. They are known respectively (and intuitively) as opacity stops and color stops.

You activate a stop to make changes by clicking on it or dragging it. When a stop is active, the triangle will be filled with black. Only one stop can be active at a time. When an opacity stop is active, the two boxes immediately below the gradient sample are active. You can drag the stop to put it at any location on the gradient sample. In the field below, you designate the opacity of the gradient at that point. The gradient's opacity is, of course, subject to the blending mode and opacity specified in the Options Bar and that of the layer upon which the gradient is dragged.

Rather than dragging the opacity stop to reposition it, you can click in the Location field and designate a position. The location is shown as a percentage of the distance from the left (0%) to the right (100%) of the gradient.

The small diamond between opacity stops determines the balance of the change from one stop to the next. When active, it is filled with black. The diamond acts much like Smoothness, but only between the adjoining stops. For example, if a stop at the left end of a gradeint is set to an opacity of 100% and a stop at the right end of the gradient is set to 0%, by default the transition will be smooth. The midpoint between the two will have an opacity of 50%. If, however, the diamond is dragged closer to the right stop, the 50% opacity point will be relocated to the diamond's position. In the example below, the default gradient Foreground-to-Transparent has been selected. In the top sample, the default values have the 50% opacity value in the middle. In the bottom sample, the small diamond has been dragged in the Gradient Editor toward the right opacity stop, to the 85% spot. (A diamond's location can also be input into the Location field when the diamond is active.)

Below the gradient sample are the color stops. Like opacity stops, color stops can be placed numerically or by dragging. Change the color of a color stop by clicking on it to make it active and then choosing the color either from the menu shown here or from the Color Picker.

You open the Color Picker by double-clicking the stop itself, or by clicking the color sample next to the menu shown above. Also like opacity stops, you'll find the midpoint diamonds between the active stop and its neighboring color stop(s).

There are several other basic concepts to know about working with color and opacity stops in the Gradient Editor:

• There must always be at least two of each, although they do not have to be at the ends of the gradient.
• To add a new opacity stop, click just above the gradient sample.
• To add a new color sample, click just below the gradient sample.
• Delete either kind of stop by dragging it out of the Gradient Editor dialog box.
• You can also delete an active stop by clicking the Delete button to the right of the stop's dialog boxes. (These buttons will be grayed out if you have only two of that type of stop.)

With a basic understanding of the Gradient Editor dialog box, you can now modify existing gradients to create custom gradients.