USING THE GRADIENTS PANEL
The word “gradient” refers to a gradual blend between multiple colors. Gradients are useful for colorizing
shapes, creating a new background, colorizing text, adding colors (or neutrals) to a photo, and more.
In this article you’ll learn how to do all that using the improved Gradients panel in Photoshop 2020,
as well as how to create a custom gradient of your own.FILLING AN OBJECT, BACKGROUND,
OR TEXT WITH A GRADIENT
Step One: Create a new document by choos -
ing File>New. You can make it any size you
want; however, this example uses the 1000 Pixel
Grid preset in the Art & Illustration category.
Click Create.Step Two: Choose Window>Gradients. In
the Gradients panel that opens, scroll down and
notice that the built-in gradient presets are now
organized into groups named by color family.
To expand a group and see its contents, click
the triangle to its left; to collapse a group, click
the triangle again. Adobe added a slew of new
presets in Photoshop 2020, so there’s a lot to
choose from; legacy presets are in a group at the
bottom of the list (if you don’t see them, choose
Legacy Gradients from the panel’s flyout menu).
You can drag groups up or down to rearrange
them in the list, you can drag presets around
within a group to rearrange those, and you can
drag a preset from one group to another. The
buttons at the bottom of the panel let you create
a new group, a new gradient, or delete a gra-
dient. The über-organized among you can even
create a group within a group. The flyout menu
(circled) lets you change how presets are dis-
played (Small Thumbnail was used here), rename
or delete a gradient or group, and more. Tip: To
expand or collapse all groups at once, Command-
(PC: Ctrl)-click any triangle. This trick works in
the Shapes, Swatches, and Patterns panels, too.Step Three: Now let’s look at applying a gradi-
ent preset to an object. To draw an object, grab
the Custom Shape tool from the Toolbar (it looks
like a hand-drawn star).LESASNIDER
Beginners’ Workshop
> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ FEBRUARY 2020[ 66 ]