SiteSpinner Tutorials: Gradient Fill

Gradient Fill (or Shading)

A gradient fill has two endpoints, and the color changes gradually as you move from one endpoint to the other. Here is a simple example with a rectangle object:

Gradient fill colors

In the Quick Editor > Shading tab are a number of buttons. They have two positions -- on or off. In the 'On' state they become darker to show they are selected. Off -- they are lighter. This makes more sense if you think of the 'On' button as depressed and so in more shadow than an unselected one. (But is the reverse of some other buttons you may have seen.)

Color endpoint buttons

The first two buttons are labeled 1 and 2, for color 1 and color 2, the colors of the two endpoints. The color 1 button will become active when the shading supports 2 colors -- anything other than a flat color.

If they are labelled Cnt (Contrast) and Brt (Brightness), it may be because you may have an image selected -- they don't allow gradient fills. Try selecting instead the "Shaded Title".

To set the endpoint colors, select a button, say 1, then adjust the sliders for the color to associate with that endpoint.

Fill-type buttons
Below the color endpoint buttons, are four more buttons. You can select only one at a time:

Flat flat: A single color as in the title above (Color 1 button is inactive)
Lin linear: The color changes from one end to the other
Cyl cylindrical: The color changes from the middle outwards, along the horizontal axis.
Rad radial: The color changes from the center outwards

Select the Shaded Title above and try these buttons, while adjusting the color sliders. These are also called RGB sliders, short for for Red, Blue, Green.

The bottom slider, Trans, is used to adjust transparency. Use it to adjust the transparency of either or both colors 1 and 2.

For fine color adjustment, use the left/right keyboard arrows to nudge the slider, or type the values into the adjacent edit box.

See also:
Transparency for images
Transparency for shapes

Color picker eyedropper
The eyedropper that shows in the Quick Editor > Shading tab is a feature that is shared by the Text and other editors. For details on how to use it, see Odds and Ends.

Some more examples of gradient fills
The first two examples also show rotation. The last example is done in the Shading Editor where you can set the origin of radial shading -- the origin does not have to be in the center of the object.