10.
Gradients
Chapter 7. Painting with GIMP
10. Gradients
Figure 7.23. Some examples of GIMP gradients.
Gradients from top to bottom: FG to BG (RGB); Full saturation spectrum; Nauseating headache; Browns; Four
bars
A gradient is a set of colors arranged in a linear order. The most basic use of gradients is by the Gradient tool,
sometimes known as “gradient fill tool”: it works by filling the selection with colors from a gradient. You have
many options to choose from for controlling the way the gradient colors are arranged within the selection. There
are also other important ways to use gradients, including:
Painting with a gradient
Each of GIMP's basic painting tools allows you the option of using colors from a gradient. This enables you
to create brushstrokes that change color from one end to the other.
The Gradient Map filter
This filter is now in the Colors menu, and allows you to “colorize” an image, using the color intensity of each
point with the corresponding color from the active gradient (the intensity 0, very dark, is replaced by the
color at most left end of the gradient, progressively until the intensity is 255, very light, replaced by the most
right color of the gradient. See Section 8.39, “Gradient Map” for more information.
When you install GIMP, it comes presupplied with a large number of interesting gradients, and you can add
new ones that you create or download from other sources. You can access the full set of available gradients
using the Gradients dialog, a dockable dialog that you can either activate when you need it, or keep around as
a tab in a dock. The “current gradient”, used in most gradient-related operations, is shown in the
Brush/Pattern/Gradient area of the Toolbox. Clicking on the gradient symbol in the Toolbox is an alternative way
of bringing up the Gradients dialog.
Many quickly examples of working with gradient (for more information see Gradient Tool):
Put a gradient in a selection:
1. Choose a gradient.
2. With the Blend Tool click and drag with the mouse between two points of a selection.
3. Colors will distributed perpendicularly to the direction of the drag of the mouse and according to
the length of it.
Figure 7.24. How to use rapidly a gradient in a selection
Painting with a gradient:
You can also use a gradient with the Pencil, Paintbrush or Airbrush tools if you choose the dynamics
Color From Gradient . In the next step choose a suitable gradient from Color options and in the Fade
options set the gradients length and the style of the repeating. The chapter Section 3.2.6, “Dynamics
Options” describes these parameters in more detail.
The following example shows the impact on the Pencil tool. You see in the upper side of the figure the
necessary settings and the lower side of the figure shows the resulting succession of the gradients
colors.
Figure 7.25. How to use rapidly a gradient with a drawing tool
To use the Paint tools with the same settings as they were known as option Use color from gradient in
GIMP up to version 2.6 open the Tool Presets Dialog. Then choose one of the items Airbrush (Color
From Gradient) , Paintbrush (Color From Gradient) or Pencil (Color From Gradient) from it.
Different productions with the same gradient:
Figure 7.26. Gradient usage
Four ways of using the Tropical Colors gradient: a linear gradient fill, a shaped gradient fill, a stroke
painted using colors from a gradient, and a stroke painted with a fuzzy brush then colored using the
Gradient Map filter.
A few useful things to know about GIMP's gradients:
The first four gradients in the list are special: they use the Foreground and Background colors from the
Toolbox Color Area, instead of being fixed. FG to BG (RGB) is the RGB representation of the gradient
from the Foreground color to the Background color in Toolbox. FG to BG (HSV counter-clockwise)
represents the hue succession in Color Circle from the selected hue to 360°. FG to BG (HSV clockwise
represents the hue succession in Color Circle from the selected hue to 0°. With FG to transparent , the
selected hue becomes more and more transparent. You can modify these colors by using the Color
Selector. Thus, by altering the foreground and background colors, you can make these gradients
transition smoothly between any two colors you want.
Gradients can involve not just color changes, but also changes in opacity. Some of the gradients are
completely opaque; others include transparent or translucent parts. When you fill or paint with a non-
opaque gradient, the existing contents of the layer will show through behind it.
You can create new custom gradients, using the Gradient Editor. You cannot modify the gradients that
are supplied with GIMP, but you can duplicate them or create new ones, and then edit those.
The gradients that are supplied with GIMP are stored in a system gradients folder. By default, gradients that
you create are stored in a folder called gradients in your personal GIMP directory. Any gradient files (ending
with the extension .ggr) found in one of these folders, will automatically be loaded when you start GIMP. You
can add more directories to the gradient search path, if you want to, in the Gradients tab of the Data Folders
pages of the Preferences dialog.
New in GIMP 2.2 is the ability to load gradient files in SVG format, used by many vector graphics programs. To
make GIMP load an SVG gradient file, all you need to do is place it in the gradients folder of your personal
GIMP directory, or any other folder in your gradient search path.
Tip
You can find a large number of interesting SVG gradients on the web, in
particular at OpenClipArt Gradients [OPENCLIPART-GRADIENT]. You
won't be able to see what these gradients look like unless your browser
supports SVG, but that won't prevent you from downloading them.
9.2. Creating a brush quickly 11. Patterns
Report an error in the bug tracker