CUSTOMIZE A GRADIENT to suit your design

You can use the Gradient tool to blend colors and fill text with soft gradations of color, to fill backgrounds or selections with a colored gradient, to apply gradient layers, or to work with masks when making composite images. As with the brushes, Photoshop installs but does not automatically load a number of different gradient color sets, which you can find by opening the Gradient picker menu and loading these using the same steps as in task #11.

 You can also create your own custom gradient by sampling colors from areas in your image or choosing different colors altogether. You can add intermediate colors and design a blend among multiple colors in any order that you want. You can design gradients that fade from any color to transparent, and you can choose different styles for the gradient, such as linear, radial, angled, reflected, or diamond. With the Gradient Editor you can start with any existing gradient, and then modify the colors, the color stops, and other options in the dialog box before naming and saving your custom gradient. The creative variations are almost endless!

 

1 Click the Gradient tool.

2 Click a gradient type in the Options bar, a linear gradient in this example.

3 Click in the gradient bar in the Options bar.

The Gradient Editor appears.

4 Click the left color stop under the gradient bar to select it.

5 Click the Color thumbnail to choose a new color.

 

 

The Color Picker dialog box appears.

6 Select a color range and a shade in the dialog box.

Note: If you have an image open, you can position the mouse pointer over the image to select a color.

7 Click OK.

A The selected color fills the left color stop in the Gradient Editor.

8 Click the right color stop under the gradient bar to select it.

9 Repeat steps 5 to 7 to select the colors for the right color stop.

B You can click along the gradient to add more color stops; repeat steps 5 to 7.

10 Type a name for your custom gradient.

11 Click New.

C The custom gradient appears in the presets.

D You can click Save to save your custom gradient in the Gradients folder. Type the gradient name in the Save dialog box that appears.

12 Click OK to close the dialog box.

Your custom gradient remains in the gradient presets.

TIPS

Caution!

You must save your custom gradients in a preset library to avoid losing them when you reset Photoshop’s preferences. Click Save in the Gradient Editor dialog box or choose Save Gradients from the menu in the Gradient picker. Type a name for your gradient library with the suffix .grd. Click Save, and your gradients are saved in Photoshop’s presets. 

More Options! 

Try varying your custom gradient on an open sample file with the gradient applied to see the changes. Add color stops, and then press Option (Alt) and drag the first color stop to another location. Drag a new color stop over other color stops. To remove a color stop, click the color stop and drag straight down.