Article Summary
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To make a gradient in Photoshop, click the gradient tool in the toolbar. This tool has a square icon with a gray gradient and shares a button with the paint bucket tool. If you don’t see the gradient tool, click and hold the paint bucket until the menu expands, and then click “”Gradient Tool””. A variety of Gradient tools will appear in the bar at the top of Photoshop. Click the drop-down menu that looks like a wide gradient to open the Gradient Editor. Select one of the presets to open the gradient for editing—the gradient bar at the bottom will display a preview. To use the preset gradient, click “”OK,”” and then click and drag across the area you want to fill with a gradient. When you lift your mouse, this will add the gradient to the section of the image on which you placed your line. You can also use different colors than what you see in the presents. To do this, click the Gradient drop-down menu to return to the Gradient editor, and select Basic gradients to start. You’ll see a square at each corner of the preview bar. The sliders on the bottom are called the “”Stops,”” and they control where colors appear on the gradient. Click the bottom-left stop, and then select a color from the “”Color”” drop-down. Then, choose an ending color by clicking the bottom-right stop and selecting another shade. Now drag the stops to the desired locations until the gradient colors appear how you’d like. When you do this, another stop will appear in the middle, which adjusts the location of where the colors blend together. If you’d like to add more colors, click below the gradient where you’d like to add a color to create another stop, then select the color you’d like. To delete a stop, just select it and click “”Delete.”” The stops at the top two corners are the Opacity stops, which control how hard or translucent the color is at a certain area. You can also use the “”Smoothness”” menu to adjust how smooth the gradient is where it changes color. Click “”OK”” when you’re finished, and then draw your line to place the gradient.
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