Using the Gradient Tool

Photoshop's Gradient Tool can be very useful.  You can create many FX, and save them, for later use.  The images it creates can be used in other programs, too.  Once you've become familiar with the gradient tool, you can create your own digital gradient filters. See my Digital Tints page for an example.

	This is the gradient tool palette.
	It can be found right under the Text Tool, which is the 'T' in this image.  By double clicking on the Gradient button, you can bring up the Gradient palette.
	Clicking the Edit Button brings up the powerful Gradient Editor dialog box.  Here, you can create any type of gradient you can imagine, with any color needed.  Each color square pointer indicates what part of the gradient it is affecting.
	You can change these colors by double clicking on the color stop, and you can move them left or right, affecting the gradient flow, as I've done here between the yellow-green and light blue-dark blue color stops.
	The little diamond shapes above the gradient bar, and in-between each color, control the midpoint of how much each adjacent color overlaps and blends into its neighbor. Here, I've moved the diamond between the yellow-green towards yellow, and the triangle between light blue and dark blue, towards the dark blue.  See how more green and light blue now show in the gradient bar, and how much narrower the yellow and dark blue bands are.
	You can also add a color stop by simply clicking any place just below the gradient bar.  I've added a white nib on the left.  If  you decide you don't want it, just click on it, hold and drag off to either left or right edge, and it will disappear. The three color stop buttons on the left are Flexible-Foreground-Background.  The Flexible you've already seen in action, the F and B ones simply use your current foreground and background colors, indicated on your main Tools palette..
	Double click any of the little colored squares under the color gradient bar, and you'll get the Color Picker dialog box that lets you change the color gradient at that point on the scale.