The gradient tool fills in your window (or selection) - starting with one color and
making small changes along the way to the end point - which is a different color. If you look
toward the bottom of the toolbar along the left you will see the two color patches. The upper-left
color is the starting color and the ending color is the lower right color patch. Your gradient
will gradually change from the starting to the ending color.
The Gradient
Tool has several different patterns that can be selected from the toolbar.
If you click on the gradient tool icon - in Photoshop -
(selected on the left) and continue to hold down the mouse button, the
following choices appear. Notice that these each have white and black
and varying shades between. The white represents the starting color and
the black represents your ending choice. On the toolbar to the left the
Starting Color is Purple and the Ending Color is Yellow.
To fill the window using the gradient tool:
click on the gradient tool - in the Photoshop toolbar to select it
click the mouse on your picture where you want the starting color to begin and-
hold the mouse button down and to the right (or whichever direction you prefer)
drag the mouse to the location you want the ending color to be
release the mouse button
This should give you a gradient starting with the current foreground color (selected in the toolbar) and ending
on the current background color (selected in the toolbar).
Note: the S and the E
represent the Starting Point and the Ending Point.
If we reverse the Starting Point and Ending Point (S and the E)
the gradient is basically reversed.
If the Starting Point and Ending Point (S and the E)
are closer together - the gradient changes from the starting color to the ending color in a shorter distance on our picture.
Notice that behind the starting color point is the starting color and past the ending point is the ending color.
The other icons available do basically the same type of thing but
with varying shapes. The tool on the far right makes a square gradient.
Remember the starting color is white in the toolbar gradient icon
and the black is the ending color of the gradient. For this one, I
started in the center of the picture and made the gradient go about
a third of the way, not-quite 45 degrees down and to the right, of
the picture.
The Gradient
Tool has several different patterns that can be selected from the toolbar.
If you click on the gradient tool icon - in Photoshop -
(selected on the left) and continue to hold down the mouse button, the
following choices appear. Notice that these each have white and black
and varying shades between. The white represents the starting color and
the black represents your ending choice. On the toolbar to the left the
Starting Color is Purple and the Ending Color is Yellow.
