Gradient tool in photoshop cs6

The Angle style middle icon is where things start to get interesting although maybe not quite as useful:. Click the corresponding color stop, and
enter a value for Location in the Stops section of the dialog box. If you look in the bottom half of the menu that appears, you'll find the list of
additional gradient sets, each based on a specific theme, like color harmonies, metals, pastels, and more. To fill part of the image, select the desired
area. We won't go through every gradient that we can choose from in Photoshop since you can easily do that on your own , but if you need to
draw a black to white gradient and your Foreground and Background colors are currently set to something other than black and white, just grab
the Black, White gradient from the Gradient Picker third thumbnail from the left, top row. After just a few clicks, the original black to white
gradient is now a custom red to yellow gradient:. To reverse the order of colors in the gradient fill, select Reverse. When you just want to choose
one of Photoshop's preset gradients, or one that you've previously created on your own and saved as a custom preset again, we'll learn how to do
that in the next tutorial , click on the small arrow to the right of the gradient preview bar in the Options Bar. For this tutorial, we'll focus on the
Gradient Picker itself. To do that, I'll first clear away my gradient by going up to the Edit menu at the top of the screen and choosing Fill:. You
cannot use the Gradient tool with bitmap or indexed-color images. Photoshop will add a new color stop at that location. Start with the black-to-
white linear gradient, dragging it from the right edge of the image through to the left edge. To open the Gradient Editor, click directly on the
gradient preview bar in the Options Bar. The Dither option is turned on by default and you'll usually want to leave it selected:. Notice that I don't
need to undo or delete my existing gradient. Again, select the layer mask in the Layers panel and drag with Brush tool on the layer mask. We've
already seen that we can change the midpoint location by dragging its icon, but we can also change it by entering a specific value into the Location
field. Finally, even though I don't really need to do this because my gradient no longer contains transparency, I'll put things back to the way they
were originally by clicking on the transparency stop in the middle of the gradient and dragging it over to the right:. Gradient presets allow you to
quickly apply gradients that you use often. We've already seen several examples of the linear style, which draws the gradient from the starting point
to the end point in a straight line based on the direction in which you dragged. One of the best ways to experiment with this feature is to click on
the Randomize button and adjust the settings from there. Select an option to determine how the starting point where the mouse is pressed and
ending point where the mouse is released affect gradient appearance. To remove a color from the gradient, click on its color stop to select it, then
drag down and away from the gradient until the stop disappears. Setting this tool to a linear gradient of black to white or white to black is truly
awesome. You can then adjust and move this opacity as you would for a starting or ending opacity. It is probably a good idea to keep the Dither
checkbox checked, as this will add subtle noise, ensuring there is less risk of any banding appearing in the gradient fill. However, the white we're
seeing is actually from the Background layer below the gradient. Do one of the following in the Gradient Editor dialog box:. With the midpoint now
closer to red, I've shortened the transition area between red and the midpoint, and lengthened the transition between the midpoint and yellow:.
New presets are saved in a Preferences file. Rename a preset gradient. It's the one that Photoshop selects for us by default, but you can also select
it manually if you need to by clicking on its thumbnail first one on the left, top row:. As we'll see in a moment, it's easy to restore the originals, so I'll
click OK to replace them with the Photographic Toning set:. You can choose from preset gradient fills or create your own. Notice the effect it's
had on the gradient. Another way to move a color is to click on its stop to select it, then enter a value directly into the Location field. The
checkerboard pattern indicates the amount of transparency in the gradient preview. If you check the Add Transparency box, you can introduce
random transparency into the equation as well. I'll turn my Background layer back on in the document by clicking once again on its visibility icon:.
The swatch in the upper left shows the Foreground color, and the one in the lower right shows the Background color. Specify the gradient
transparency. If you want to make it easier to draw a perfectly horizontal gradient, press and hold your Shift key as you're dragging, which will limit
the angle in which you can drag.

Gradient tool modes

We can select one of Photoshop's ready-made preset gradients from the Gradient Picker , or we can create and edit our own gradient using the
Gradient Editor. The Neutral Density preset provides a helpful photographic filter for sunsets and other high-contrast scenes. We've already seen
several examples of the linear style, which draws the gradient from the starting point to the end point in a straight line based on the direction in
which you dragged. Then, I'll choose a color by clicking on the Foreground color swatch in the Tools panel. I'll turn my Background layer back on
in the document by clicking once again on its visibility icon:. The difference between the two is that the Gradient Picker simply allows us to choose
from ready-made preset gradients, while the Gradient Editor, as its name implies, is where we can edit and customize our own gradients. Let's use
it to help us learn how to actually draw a gradient, and along the way, we'll see how easy it is to change its colors to whatever we need! You can
also double-click on the thumbnail, which will both select the gradient and close out of the Gradient Picker:. Or if the gradient will be using, say,
pastel colors, it may be easier to first load the Pastels gradient set and choose a preset that's already using colors similar to the ones we need.
Figure 1 To create a new custom gradient, click on the gradient ramp in the gradient options panel. Otherwise, the gradient fill is applied to the
entire active layer. When I release my mouse button, Photoshop draws the red to yellow gradient diagonally across the document:. Instead, we
start with one of the preset gradients and then we edit its colors. Shades from the starting point to the ending point in a circular pattern. In other
words, it now takes only a quarter of the total distance between the colors for my gradient to transition from the color on the left to the midpoint,
and three quarters of the distance to transition from the midpoint into the color on the right:. You can also choose Load Gradients, Replace
Gradients, or choose a library of gradients from the Gradient Picker menu in the options bar. The default gradient style in Photoshop is Linear , but
you can select it manually if you need to by clicking the first icon on the left:. One thing that's very important to understand when it comes to
drawing gradients is that it's not just the direction in which you drag that matters; the distance between your starting and end points also matters.
 Select the layer mask in the Layers panel and drag with the Gradient tool on the layer mask to create the gradient. If you're a photographer, the
Neutral Density and Photographic Toning gradients are particularly useful:. With these settings in place, you can create feathered edges that blend
one layer into another without any harsh lines. The Radial style second icon from the left will draw a circular gradient outward from your starting
point:. Then, we edit the preset gradient's colors to create our own custom gradient. The combination of a gradient setting and gradient mode can
then be saved as a gradient tool preset by mousing down on the triangle button next to the tool icon shown here and choosing New Gradient
Photoshop will add your new gradient in with the other presets, giving it its own thumbnail that you can click on to select it the next time you need
it:. You can also add intermediate colors to a gradient, creating a blend between more than two colors. For this tutorial, we'll focus on the Gradient
Picker itself. I'll name my layer "Gradient", then I'll click OK:. Click Load to add a library to the current list. This hides the white background in the
document, revealing just the gradient itself, and now we can clearly see that it's really a purple to transparent gradient. I'll click OK to close out of
the New dialog box, at which point a new white-filled document appears on the screen:. You can also try using this new preset when layer
masking. This type of gradient is known as a linear gradient, but it's actually just one of five different gradient styles we can choose from in
Photoshop. You can see your current Foreground and Background colors in the color swatches near the bottom of the Tools panel. Click the
button until you find a setting you like. It begins with my Foreground color black at my starting point in the center and moves outward in all
directions as it transitions into my Background color blue:. If the Transparency option is turned off when drawing a Foreground to Transparent
gradient, all you'll end up doing is filling the layer or selection with your chosen Foreground color:.

How To Use The Gradient Editor In Photoshop

Well, as I mentioned earlier, we don't actually create gradients photooshop scratch in Photoshop. I'll click OK to close out of the Color Picker,
and now my two-color gradient toop become a three-color gradient. For example, I'll choose a different Foreground color by clicking on the
Foreground color swatch in gradient tool in photoshop cs6 Tools panel the one that's currently set to black:. This opened the Color Picker,
where I could choose a new color for the start of the gradient. Noise gradients are based on a random distribution gradient tool in photoshop
cs6 colors between a specified color range, but note that any settings made in the Photosop Gradient Editor will have no bearing on the
appearance of the noise gradient. The truth is, it's so easy to create any type of gradient you need with the Gradient Editor that you'll often find
yourself starting with the most basic gradient of phogoshop allthe Black, White gradient which is included as one of the defaults. If the
Transparency option is turned gradient tool in photoshop cs6 when drawing a Foreground to Ggradient gradient, all you'll end up doing is filling
the layer cs selection with your chosen Foreground color:. In the options bar, choose a fill from the wide gradient sample:. To prove it, I'll
temporarily turn off my Background layer by clicking on its visibility icon the eyeball icon in the Layers panel:. Or if the gradient will be using, say,
pastel colors, it may be easier to first load the Pastels gradient set and choose a preset that's graeient using colors similar to the ones we need. The
Roughness photosjop determines the smoothness of a noise gradient tool in photoshop cs6 and the Color model settings allow you to edit the
range of colors used. Simply click in your document to set a starting point for the gradient, then keep your mouse button held down and drag away
from the starting point to where you want the gradient to end. When the Transparency box is checked, if there are transparency masks in a
gradient, these will gradient tool in photoshop cs6 recognized. This helps to reduce banding visible tol that form between ln when the transitions
are not smooth enough. To adjust the location of vs6 starting point or ending point, do one of the following:. So far, we've looked mainly at
Photoshop's default Foreground to Background gradient, but another one that's often very useful is the Foreground to Transparent gradient, and
it's worth looking at because it behaves a bit differently than the others. Drawing a vertical Foreground to Transparent gradient down through the
top half of the document. When I release my mouse button, Photoshop completes the gradient, replacing the initial horizontal one with a vertical
black to white gradient:. When I release my mouse button, we see that while this gradient was drawn in the same direction as the one before, the
transition between black on the gradient tool in photoshop cs6 and white on the right is much more sudden and abrupt. Select the corresponding
opacity gradient tool in photoshop cs6, and enter a value for Location. To edit a layer photshop, click the Layer Mask thumbnail in the Layers
panel. As we can see, the distance between your starting and end c6 is every bit as important as the direction when it comes to the overall
appearance of the gradient:. What makes it special, though, is that there is no second color. Gradient tool in photoshop cs6 this example, I
picked an orange color. Controls how gradual the transitions are between color bands in the gradient. With these settings in place, you can create
feathered edges that blend one layer into another without any harsh lines. This feature is like any other type of adjustment layer in that you can edit
the Gradient Fill you can double-click a Gradient Fill adjustment layer to alter the angle, the gradient setting, gradient type and blend mode at
any time. There's a couple of other Gradient Tool options in the Options Bar that we'll save for another tutorial because they go a bit beyond the
basics. With gradient tool in photoshop cs6 Transparency option turned off, Photoshop can't draw the transparent part of the gradient. I'll draw
another gradient, this time i top to bottom. Noise gradient with different roughness values. Then, I'll draw the angle-style gradient the same way as
phtooshop radial gradient by clicking in the center of the document to set the starting point, then dragging away from gradient tool in photoshop
cs6. Notice that the color swatches have updated to show the new colors I've chosen for the Foreground and Background:. Photoshop will ask if
you want to replace the current gradients with the defaults. To base the new gradient on an existing gfadient, select gradient tool in photoshop
cs6 gradient in the Presets section of the dialog box. It represents the exact middle of the transition between the colors on either side of it the spot
where the two colors are mixed evenly. We can change the location of the midpoint by dragging the icon closer to one color or the gfadient. And
now, we see in the Gradient Picker that the original gradients have graadient replaced with the Photographic Toning gradients. Gradients are
invaluable in Photoshop, and they're a great way to add more interest and life to what would have been phootoshop flat-looking image or design.
It's the one that Photoshop selects for us by default, but you can also select it manually if you need to by clicking on toil thumbnail first one on the
left, top row:. You'll find the other gradient sets listed in the bottom half of the menu that appears. I'll choose yellow, then I'll click OK to close out
of it:. For this tutorial, I'll set the Width of my document to pixels and the Height to pixels. The Reflected style fourth icon from the left is very
similar to the standard linear style, but it goes a step further by taking everything on one side of your starting point and mirroring it on the other
side:. Partial transparency is represented by various shades of gray. The gradient preview bar in the Options Bar has also updated to show me
 what the new gradient colors will look like:. Just as with drawing a horizontal gradient, it's much easier to draw a vertical gradient if you press and
hold your Shift key as you're dragging, making sure to wait xs6 after you've released your mouse button before releasing the Shift yool. We don't
actually create a gradient from scratch. We've already seen several examples of the linear style, which draws the gradient from the starting point to
the end point in a straight line based on the direction in which you photosyop. I'll click near the top of my document, then keep my mouse button
held down gradient tool in photoshop cs6 drag downward towards the bottom. If I drew a third or fourth gradient maybe one from the left and
the other from the right it would add those ones as well:. Of course, gradients don't need to run horizontally like this. The combination of a gradient
setting and gradient mode gradient tool in photoshop cs6 then be saved as a gradient tool preset by mousing down on the triangle button next to
the tool icon shown here and choosing New Gradient Click the corresponding color stop, and enter a gradient tool in photoshop cs6 for
Location in the Stops section of the dialog box. If the whole point of the Gradient Editor is to create our own custom gradients, why does it give us
access to so many presets when we can already choose presets from the Gradient Picker? Select one photoshol the preset phptoshop from the
Gradient Picker drop-down panel on the Options bar. I'll draw a second Foreground to Transparent gradient, this time from near the bottom of
the document up to the center:. Blends the photowhop of the gradient from start color to end color in a straight line.