Gradient
How to Draw a Gradient on a Photo in Photasium
A fade behind a caption, a colour across a product, or a soft edge on a screenshot can be a blend from one colour to another. In Photasium that happens in the tab: the file never goes to a server.
A blend across the layer
Gradient paints a blend from the foreground colour to the background colour on the active raster layer. Linear runs along the line you drag. Radial starts at the first point and reaches the end colour at the length of the drag.
Fill floods one connected colour on the raster you already have. Shape draws a rectangle, an ellipse, a line, or an arrow on a new layer. A gradient at full opacity covers the raster you paint, so add a new layer first if the photograph should stay underneath.
A fade behind type
A story often wants the words to sit on a darker stretch of the photo. Add a layer, turn on Fade to transparent, and drag a linear gradient from a dark foreground up into the picture. Text can sit above that layer.
Opacity runs from 1 to 100 and starts at 100. A lower value lets more of the photo show through the blend.
A listing shot can take a brand colour across the frame. Set the foreground to that colour, add a layer, and drag a linear or radial gradient with the opacity pulled down, so the photograph on the layer underneath still shows through.
A screenshot of a long page can use a short linear blend along the bottom edge, so the last rows fade out. Fade to transparent ends that drag in clear pixels of the foreground colour.
A print layout sometimes wants a colour band for a caption. A linear gradient on its own layer, with Fade to transparent on, leaves one edge in the foreground colour and lets the photograph return along the drag.
Drawing a gradient in Photasium
Open a photo
Open the editor, then File → Open, or drop an image on the canvas. Select the raster you want to paint, or use New layer in the Layers footer if the photograph should stay untouched.
Choose Gradient
Click Gradient in the toolbar, or press D.
Pick a kind
Linear and Radial are in the options bar. Linear is the one that opens.
Set the colours
The blend starts as the foreground colour, which starts black, and ends as the background colour, which starts white. Click a colour well to change it, or press I and click the photo to sample a pixel. Option-click with the picker sets the background. Opacity runs from 1 to 100 and starts at 100. Fade to transparent ends the blend in clear pixels of the foreground colour.
Drag
Drag on the canvas. A line follows the pointer while you drag. The start point is the foreground colour, and the end point is the background colour, or clear if Fade to transparent is on. Hold Shift to keep the line on 45° steps. When you let go, the blend is painted on the active raster. A drag shorter than a pixel adds nothing.
If a selection is active, the blend paints only inside it. A locked layer will not take the blend. If the active layer is type or a group, Photasium adds a raster layer and paints the gradient there. If that layer is a group, or sits inside one, the new layer is added in that group. On a linear gradient, colour before the start stays the foreground, and colour past the end stays the end colour. Outside a radial gradient, the end colour continues. Undo restores the pixels from before the drag. If a layer was added for the gradient, a second undo removes that layer. Select (V) moves a layer you added. The blend is pixels on that layer, so Transform, or T, scales it with the layer.
A blend on the layer
The gradient sits on the raster you painted, nothing was uploaded, and undo restores the previous pixels. If the direction is wrong, undo and drag again.
Download PNG, JPEG, or WebP if you need a file to send. Come back later and the document is still listed under the editor, until this browser’s storage is cleared. Gradient sits with the other photo editing tools: fill a region, type a label, and export a listing.