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InDesign Gradient Tool Only Black and White

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
December 20, 2019
4 replies
29206 views

I haven't seen this question anywhere else that's not eight years old, so hoping someone can help. Never before have I not been able to get the gradient to change color but it's happening to me now -- this past week I've had the weirdest things happening with Adobe.

I'm working in CMYK, and that's what my color mode is set to. I want a gradient that's colored but it only allows for gray scale. I know that double clicking the gradient swatches on the slider will give me a colored gradient since I have my color mode set to CMYK, but it's not working and nothing happens when I click on them. Why? The "options panel" on my gradient window literally only says "hide options" and gives me none. Never had this problem once before. Does someone have a solution to this? Clicking swatches or changing the color in the color panel just makes the gradient solid.

Windows 10, InDesign 15.0.1 newest update

Thank you!

Correct answer jane-e

Hi Doswald,

What happens if you go to the Swatches panel and choose New Gradient Swatch from the panel menu instead of using the Gradient panel? Does that work?

Also try this: select a marker for a gradient stop in the Gradient panel, then Alt+Click a color in Swatches or in the ramp of the Color panel.

Jane

dnapieralskiAuthor

Known Participant

You've saved the day. The second solution is the only thing that works. I did uninstall InDesign first, but some solutions still aren't working for me (there has to be some odd setting somewhere - it's all I can think of?) - using Alt + Click for the color worked. Thanks so much! I've never been so relieved!

jane-e

Community Expert

I’m so glad this works for you — I’m surprised that creating a gradient swatch from the Swatches panel doesn’t work as well, but at least you can move forward!

~ Jane

Alexandre Becquet

Community Expert

Hello, i think you should reset the preferences :

hold CMD+OPTION+CONTROL+SHIFT at he launch, clic on yes in the pop and you should have all the icons back 😉

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html#restore_all_preferences_and_default_settings

dnapieralskiAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks so much! I've never had to do this before -- so just wondering is there any reason why this wouldn't work? Nothing happens when I type these buttons together. For me it's Shift+Control+Alt as I'm on Windows at work. Nothing happens when I do it while it's starting up, nothing happens when I do it while it's already started, nothing happens when the document is open, etc. Nothing happens when I hold them down, nothing happens when I hit them all together, nothing happens when I hit them separately. I'm so frustrated today, LOL!

jane-e

Community Expert

Hi

It’s trickier on Windows than on a Mac.

First, Quit InDesign
Second hover over Ctrl+Alt+Shift with your left hand
Next, launch InDesign
Immediately press and hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift until you see a dialog asking if you want to reset preferences
Choose yes, okay, or whatever it says. If you don’t see the dialog, then you weren’t fast enough and need to try again.

You can also do it manually:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/setting-preferences.html

~ Jane

D

datap6156868

Inspiring

Hey there, Click the bucket icon in the Gradient panel then go to color panel and change the color to CMYK. Now pick any of the color to your gradient or drag and drop any of your swatches to the gradient.

dnapieralskiAuthor

Known Participant

Thanks! I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you mean about the bucket icon. Here's all I have available to me on the gradient panel:

I've clicked on the options in the right corner to show that my only option is to hide the options. When the slider is active and showing the black swatch and the white swatch after applying the gradient, clicking on those does nothing for me.

D

datap6156868

Inspiring

First Select the frame which you need to apply gradient. Then click at the bottom of the gradient panel which indicates white to black shades. Now you can see those icons.

jane-e

Community Expert

Can you post screen shots to clarify the issue?

dnapieralskiAuthor

Known Participant

I'm not sure if these will help because I can't show you how it changes when I choose different settings but here I'm showing that if I want a gradient, it's only allowing me to make it black and white:

dnapieralskiAuthor

Known Participant

When I double click the swatches in the gradient slider, nothing happens. When I click a swatch or adjust the color it changes to a solid color and removes the gradient.

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