Gradient Editor

With this editor you can define and change color ranges within the palette. It can be opened by either selecting the corresponding entry in the menu Colors or the toolbox.
A color range (gradient) is a group of color palette entries selected by a start and an end color. You can have up to 64 different gradients.



The first color of a gradient is surrounded by a yellow box and the last color by a green box. To select a new start or end color hold the SHIFT key and left click on a color to select it as the first color or rightclick to select it as the last color. All colors belonging to the gradient are surrounded by a white box. Below the color table you can see the gradient look.
Also color data is displayed for the first and last color (index and RGB-values).

Ramp allows you to create a smooth color ramp from the first color to the last color.

Rampmode is used to define the color space where the ramping is to be calculated. You may select from HSV or RGB which yield different results.

Flip swaps the first and the last color index and lets you change the gradients direction.

Copy to allows you to copy a gradient to another position.. Hit the Copy to button. The mouse cursor becomes a crosshair. Now leftclick on the color you want to copy the gradient to.

Swap with works like Copy to, but swaps the colors instead of copying.

Gray makes the selected gradient to be gray

Undo makes the last operation undone.

Auto update immediately updates color changes to the image

To Palette takes you to the Palette Editor

Multi Shade enabled the gradient to be used with the multi shade paint mode. See menu mode

The slider besides the label Gradient allows you to change between the different gradients.
The sliders at the bottom can be used to change HSB and contrast of the selected gradient. If your gradient covers the complete color table then this helps you to change the color tones or the contrast of the whole image.

You can also set keys within a gradient selection which are recognized when ramping a gradient. This is done by rightclicking on a color between the first and the last gradient color. Such a key color is marked with a red box.

It is possible to cycle a gradient. That means that the colors are shifted within the defined gradient range. For this purpose you have the Speed slider. Here you can give each gradient a unique speed value. This value is defined in steps per second and can go from 0 to 100. If you hold the little play button right besides the speed slider the cycling is activated. Now all gradients that have a speed different to zero and that are activated (little "Color cycle" checkbox) are cycled. As default the cycling can only be seen in the animation window. To cycle the magnify window too you can set an option in the preferences section miscellaneous ; (see descriptions for menu File).
The cycling can also be activated outside this editor while drawing. There is a play button near the gradient display on the information panel. See the description for the workspace in section Getting started.

Be sure not to overlap gradients that are cycled. Otherwise you will get wrong results!

For a little tutorial on how and where to use gradients and cycling please have a look at the Painting Tutorial "Working with Gradients" in the digital handbook.

Gradient data for an image can only be saved with the file types .lbm and .iff!

Related topics

Menu Animation
Menu Colors
Menu Mode
Toolbox
Workspace