Gradient only showing gray scale

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
March 17, 2011
4 replies
104074 views

I am trying to create a colored button in IL CS3, and when I open the gradient box, I am only getting a gray scale option- no colors to choose from. If I go to Color Palette, I can apply only a solid color. Back to Gradient, still only gray...arrgh. I am new to Illustrator but this seems too basic. In tutes I am reading, the Gradient opens with a color palette too. How do I get that? thnx!

Tools

Correct answer Monika Gause

Hi, I did what you were doing, but all of the options were greyed out. Any ideas why?

Did you read this:

Illustrator Help | Apply or edit a gradient

thomash30042571

Participant

Using Photoshop 13.0

Go to: Image -> Mode -> CMYK colour

Or; when you open a new file tab you can select the Colour Mode there.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

thomash30042571 schrieb
Using Photoshop 13.0
Go to: Image -> Mode -> CMYK colour
Or; when you open a new file tab you can select the Colour Mode there.

This is the Illustrator forum and you're answering a question from 8 years ago.

thomash30042571

Participant

Looks like you're correct

Y

yoratha9480984

Participant

Yes it's 2018, but in case anybody is looking for this question, you only have to double-click the gradient points (you should have two by default, one black and one white) and this will open up the colour menu, just make sure you have RGB chosen from the popup menu (the icon is three horizontal lines on top of each other) on the color button (I'm sorry I'm also new to this stuff and I don't know the code names for all the elements hahah)

Hope this was helpful in any way

C

cdkmabalem

Participant

This is ridiculously difficult to achieve such a simple task. Why does it default to a grayscale gradient? We should easily be able to pick a starting color and an ending color. Then ancillary controls for opacity, additional gradient stops, and a draggable gradient bias between any two stops.

The same exact control and function is much better in Photoshop--please unify the UX between these tools.

E

ethan_hines

Participant

I completely agree. If we start a document in a color mode (RGB/CMYK) it is illogical that the operator must choose the gamut. Better still illustrator should pick the color that the source element is in. For instance if one has a rectangle fill of yellow and one selects the gradient tool it should automatically pick the fill of yellow and gradually fade to white and not the awful choice of black.

A

Abragj02

Participant

Agree totaly. It used to work if you clicked on one of target colors on the gradient tool...usually, it would give me option to change to cmyk. I'm doing it now, and it just reverts back to b&w. Wondering if this is a glitch?

J

JJLAPIN

Participating Frequently

You can drag a swatch on to the gradient slider to set a color or select one of the sliders, go up to color--set you color space in the pull down menu and enter your values there.