Creating and editing gradients

Although Corel Painter comes with libraries full of gradients, you can create custom gradients or edit existing gradients.

You can create very simple to very complex gradients. For a simple two-point gradient, you choose a main and an additional color, and then Corel Painter generates the gradient colors between them.

A two-point gradient (right) generated from the main and additional colors (left).

You can also create a new gradient by editing an existing gradient. For example, you can modify the gradient color blend or add additional colors to a gradient, which are also known as color control points.

A new color was added to the gradient by adding a color control point to the color ramp bar.

In addition, you can modify the gradient hue to change the appearance of a particular gradation of color.

You can use any existing image as a source for creating new gradients. For example, you can capture the colors in a photo of a sunset, or paint your own range of colors as the content of a gradient.

To create a perfect blend between a series of colors, it is better to work with a row of single pixels than a large piece of an image.

You can save all of your new and modified gradients in the Gradient Library so you can use them in future projects. For more information, see Working with libraries.

To create a two-point gradient

1	Choose Window Color Panels Color.

2	From the Color panel, click the Main Color (front) swatch , and choose a main color.

3	Click the Additional Color (back) swatch , and choose an additional color.

4	Choose Window Media Control Panels Gradients.

6	Click the Gradient options button , and choose Save Gradient.

To edit a gradient

1	Choose Window Media Control Panels Gradients.

3	Click the Gradient options button , and choose Edit Gradient.

Drag a color control point to adjust the color transition at a specific point in the gradient.

To modify a two-point gradient, you can add additional color control points by clicking in the color ramp bar where you want to set the control points.

You can blend the gradient color ramp by disabling the Linear check box and dragging the Color Spread slider to control the color smoothness at each color control point.

To add color to a gradient

1	Choose Window Color panels Color.

2	Choose Window Media Control Panels Gradients.

4	Click the Gradient options button , and choose Edit Gradient.

You can press Option + click (Mac OS) or Alt + click (Windows) in the color ramp bar to create a control point that is set to the current color.

You can delete a control point by clicking a control point and pressing Delete (Mac OS) or Backspace (Windows).

To change the gradient hue

1	Choose Window Media Control Panels Gradients.

3	Click the Gradient options button , and choose Edit Gradient.

The Color hue options allow you to change the hue of the blend within that segment.

To understand this concept better, refer to the standard display of the Color panel (Hue Ring and Saturation/Value Triangle), and note the order of the colors on the Hue Ring. Notice that as you change parameters within the Edit Gradient dialog box, gradient previews are updated in the Gradients panel.

To create a gradient from an image

1	Click the Rectangular Selection tool from the toolbox.

3	Choose Window Media Control Panels Gradients.

4	In the Gradients panel, click the Gradient options button , and choose Capture Gradient.

After a gradient is captured, it can no longer be edited. To change a captured gradient, change the artwork from which it was captured, and then recapture the gradient.

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