InDesign Gradient Tool Only Black and White

[dnapieralski]

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!

[jane-e]

Can you post screen shots to clarify the issue?

[dnapieralski]

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:

[dnapieralski]

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.

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

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

[William263597174147]

I had the same issue(Windows 11 indesign 17.4 x 64) and the Alt+Click a color in Swatches worked. Thank you.

[datap6156868]

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.

[dnapieralski]

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.

[datap6156868]

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.

[dnapieralski]

Yeah, unfortunately that is what I'm saying isn't working. I'm so lost! I've been doing that. I've never had a problem like this before.

[dnapieralski]

The icons at the bottom of the panel do literally nothing when I click them. I know that's how you're meant to be able to change the color. Everyone here is stumped too. I've restarted my computer even as a last resort and we can't understand the problem. I think photos aren't helpful, and the only way they would be is if I was able to send a screen recording because this is tough to explain... 

[Alexandre Becquet]

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_...

[dnapieralski]

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]

Hi

It’s trickier on Windows than on a Mac. 

1. First, Quit InDesign
2. Second hover over Ctrl+Alt+Shift with your left hand
3. Next, launch InDesign
4. Immediately press and hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift until you see a dialog asking if you want to reset preferences
5. 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

[dnapieralski]

Thank you! I realized I wasn't being quick enough also so thank you. I did reset the preferences but the problem still persists. Nothing has changed with the gradient. I might give up and tell them that a gradient just won't work for this. An Adobe problem has never stumped me more.

[BobLevine]

Why is it trickier on Windows?

[jane-e]

Because of the timing when you do it on Windows, Bob — on a Mac you Quit, hold down Cmd+Ctrl+Opt+Shift first, then launch the application. (Control+Click is the same as right-click, going back to the days of a one-button mouse.) So you don't need to worry about the speed issue, which trips a lot of folks up.

~ Jane

[dnapieralski]

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]

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