Creating and Saving A Gradient

[Linda Lou]

I created an image (Green Christmas) that I want to use as a gradient. I could not find the New Gradient button as described in Help. I saved it as a .psp image for lack of anything better when I couldn't get the gradient adjustments on existing gradients exactly as I wanted (screenshot). Where is that New Gradient button? Help shows it as a black button. Or is it not possible to create a gradient from scratch?

[LeviFiction]

There is a little "+" button under the gradient list, that creates a new gradient.

[ehume]

There is a little "+" button under the gradient list, that creates a new gradient.

This is true, but the button is easy to miss. It is to the left of "Current" and "Previous."

[Linda Lou]

Yikes, that IS small! Help shows it as a solid black box that appears to be a "normal" size.
OK, clicking that + asks me for a name. Where do I actually create the gradient? Is using that slider adjustment the only way? (I didn't do well with that when I was trying to adjust greens.)
Is there any way I can convert the image of my Green Christmas gradient? Otherwise, I'll have to use it as an image in my work as is.

[hartpaul]

I didn't have your gradient to test with so I have shown how you can select the colors of an image and make a gradient of those.
Selecting the Colors of an Image

1. I selected a colourful image and then used the straighten tool (without crop image) to place the line across a colourful part of the image - diagonal in this case.
2. This then gave a horizontal line of colors.
3. Used the selection tool (best with no feather ) to select a slice including all the colors you want.
4. Promoted that selection to a layer (Selections > Promote Selection to layer) and deleted the base layer. Then applied a gaussian blur (Adjust > Blur > Guassian blur)
5. Because I had used a feather I then had to crop to remove any parts that had partial transparency.

This gave me a mix of colors that I could then use to make a new gradient from.

Editing a New Gradient

1. Click that teensy weensy + sign and type in a name for your new gradient and click OK. This in effect reserves a gradient space for your new gradient. Now you have to choose the colors you want in that gradient and where.
The help file containing the information for this is here:

http://help.corel.com/paintshop-pro/v20 ... 3ww1268266

2. (You can interchange the order of 2 and 3). Clicking the User second button brings up the color wheel (and changes the cursor to an eyedropper) where you can choose a color or as I have done eventually choose the color from my prepared mix of colors.
3. I click on this marker so that the little triangle at the top goes black making it the active marker then-
4. Up to the image and choose the color from the image I want in that position. (I could choose any color at any position in the image - not necessarily the left most part of the image.) By clicking OK on the color wheel dialog that color is transferred to the active marker, that part of the gradient and becomes the user colors

Making the New Gradient

1. Shows the result of the steps 1-4 above.
2. Add more markers by clicking in positions below your gradient. I now have 5 markers
3. By repeating the 4 steps under Editing a New Gradient I have transferred 5 colors from the image to my gradient.
4. Clicking OK you get the warning message that you are changing the gradient that you made the new name for. Click OK to allow this new edited gradient to take that name.

Final result

This shows the original image and where I chose the color samples and in the Foreground and Stroke Properties box you can see my new gradient has been chosen.

[Linda Lou]

That information is priceless! I am going to print it so I can refer to it. Thank you, all - and especially @hartpaul for the screenshots.

[Linda Lou]

I printed these 2018 instructions and have tried every so often to master creating gradients. Adding/saving 2-color gradients is no problem. I cannot seem to create a multi-color gradient -- rainbow type. Clicking on the User button brings up a way to select a new color, but after doing that I still end up with a 2-color gradient. It does not add a third color to my existing gradient. Obviously I am missing some simple step in adding additional colors but I don't know what it is.

Attached is today's sample bar. I end up with either yellow and orange or orange and violet without all three.
What step am I missing?

Sample Colors.png (1.51 KiB) Viewed 1668 times

[migf1]

Hello Linda,

You can add "stops" across the horizontal preview area. At the top you have the opacity "stops", at the bottom you have the color "stops". So, by clicking say at the bottom, you create a new color stop. Once created, you can then set its color. To remove a stop, click on it, then hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Similarly, you can add/remove opacity stops, at the top of the preview bar.

So, for every new color you want to add, you need to create a color "stop" first, then set its color.

PS. To change the location of a stop, you can drag it on the preview bar (or use the Location field). Also, by hovering your mouse over existing stops, you get a little label saying if it is a color or an opacity stop (just in case you forget which type goes at the top and which goes at the bottom).

[Linda Lou]

Yes! Yes! That is what I was missing. I could see the stops but thought they were for adjusting the current gradient because that's all they did when I moved them around. I did not realize they were a step in the sequence of adding colors. Thank you so much!

[hartpaul]

Mmm Thought I may have missed that but it is mentioned there:

1. Shows the result of the steps 1-4 above.
2. Add more markers by clicking in positions below your gradient. I now have 5 markers
3. By repeating the 4 steps under Editing a New Gradient I have transferred 5 colors from the image to my gradient.

You may have missed it .

[migf1]

You are welcome Linda!

Yeah Paul, seems like Linda missed that step in your details instructions.

[Andy2011]

Thanks to all for the information on gradients - I hadn't realised how easy it was to create & adjust them.