please send me to your best and most recent info on using the gradient tools in ID. It all seems rather cumbersome and not successful. I just need to make a gradient fill from a swatch to transparency. Where would that be?

Question

I’m trying to use the gradient tool in InDesign. Simple. I made a box. I want to color it on one side and have it fade to transparent on the other. The color side will be a swatch from my list. I cannot seem to get the color palette to open while I have the gradient tool open to drag a color swatch over the gradient squares. Nor can I click with any success on the small color squares on the gradient bar that used to - with a click - just let me pick a color for each bit of a gradient.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS · Answer

Unlike Illustrator, InDesign color gradients do not have transparency as an option. For that, you need to use the Gradient Feather effect. If you gradient is the same color, but just fades to transparency, you don’t need a color gradient, just a solid swatch. The effect will do what you want.

I suggest always using swatches. You can alt/opt-click on the swatch after selecting a color gradient color stop.

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