How to Create a Custom Gradient in Illustrator

Color blends are a time-honored tool for creating variety and a sense of dimension in illustrations. Adobe Illustrator offers a number of approaches to creating color blends, but the original gradient blend remains a highly effective and memory-efficient technique. Best of all, it's easy to create your own custom gradients and save them for future use.

Instructions

1. Detach the gradient, swatches and color palettes from their docks. Line them up side-by-side. This will make it easier to switch back and forth between them while you're mixing colors.

2. Choose a color palette (RGB, CMYK, Grayscale) from the color palette's options menu. Adjust the sliders to create your first gradient color. When you're satisfied, drag the new color to the swatches palette. Create as many colors as you want to use in your gradient.

3. Click on the gradient slider (the gradient bar) in the gradient palette. Two color stops will appear (they look like little houses with the currents color showing in the squares). When the color stop is selected, its icon will appear underneath the color preview in the colors palette.

4. Drag the first color from the swatches palette to the color preview in the color palette. The color preview will change to the fill/stroke preview and the new color will be showing as one of the gradient colors. Repeat for the other gradient color. Hold down the "Option" key and drag any color stop to add a new color stop to your gradient.

5. Move the color stops to the right or left to change the color distribution across the gradient as a whole. Drag the diamonds above the slider to change the spread between any two colors. Choose whether you want the gradient to be "Linear" or "Radial." When you're finished, drag the gradient preview to the swatches palette to save the gradient (double click on the new swatch icon to name it).

6. Select the object you want to take the blend. Drag the blend from the swatches palette onto the object. If you want to change the overall angle or spread of the blend, choose the gradient blend tool and drag across the object in the direction you want the blend to follow.

7. Create as many gradients as you want and add them to your swatches palette. Save your swatches palette to use your blend with future documents. You can save the palette using the palette's options menu.