Cannot Find "Gradient Editor"

[warai]

I'm working with gradients, and I'd like to be able to set the transparency of one of the colors. This is a cinch in photoshop, so it's not like I have no clue how to make and edit gradients in general. I've also read the Illustrator CS2 help, searched the forum, and checked the FAQ section for information regarding gradients and the gradient editor, but nothing I've found has helped.

Specifically, I'm having trouble accessing the "Gradient Editor dialog box" as described in the Illustrator CS2 Help under "To define a gradient":

"1. In the Editor, select the Gradient tool.

2. To display the Gradient Editor dialog box, click the Edit button next to the gradient sample."

I've never seen such an "Edit" button, and no matter how hard I look, all I can ever find is a bastardized version of what I seek that lets me set everything BUT transparency. Any suggestions on how to properly access the "Gradient Editor dialog box" would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jmgalvin]

I'm still on CS so don't know if they've changed things that much.

Try Window menu/gradient. There, you can make gradients as you please - selecting"show options" from teh flyout menu give some more.

If you have a gradient open the swatches window where you have it and click it. It'll show up in teh gradient window for editing.

I hope that's what you meant by editing gradients.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[apepp]

...i think you may be reading the photoshop help and not the Illustrator help files, the gradint editor is only relevant to photoshop, choose the Illustrator CS2 help files instead...

...this is what i found...


To create or modify gradients
Do one of the following:
To modify an object’s gradient, select the object.
To modify a preset gradient, click a gradient swatch in the Swatches palette. (To display only gradients in the palette, click the Show Gradient Swatches button .)
To create a new gradient, deselect all objects and click the gradient box at the bottom of the toolbox.
Select a gradient type (Linear or Radial) in the Gradient palette.
If you select Linear, enter an angle of direction for the gradient in the Angle text box. Alternatively, drag the Gradient tool in the document window to set the angle.
Select colors for the gradient.
Gradient colors are defined by a series of stops in the gradient slider. A stop is the point at which a gradient changes from one color to the next and is identified by a square below the gradient slider. The squares in the Gradient palette display the color currently assigned to each gradient stop. With a radial gradient, the leftmost gradient slider defines the center point’s color fill, which radiates outward to the color of the rightmost gradient slider.
You can adjust gradient stops in the following ways:
To define the starting and ending colors of a gradient, click the leftmost (starting color) or rightmost (ending color) gradient stop. Then create a color in the Color palette, or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) a color swatch in the Swatches palette. Alternatively, drag a color from the Color palette or the Swatches palette onto the gradient stop.
Note: If you create a gradient between spot colors, you must deselect Convert To Process in the Separation Setup dialog box to print the gradient in individual spot color separations.
To add intermediate colors to a gradient, drag a color from the Swatches palette or the Color palette onto the gradient slider. Alternatively, click anywhere below the gradient slider, and then select a color as you would for the starting or ending color. To delete an intermediate color, drag the square off the gradient slider.
To adjust the midpoints of the gradient’s color stops (the point at which two color stops are 50%), drag a diamond icon located above the slider or select the icon and enter a value between 0 and 100 in the Location text box.
To adjust the endpoints of the gradient’s color stops, drag the leftmost or rightmost gradient stop below the gradient slider.
Once you create or modify a gradient, save it as a swatch by clicking the New Swatch button in the Swatches palette. Alternatively, drag the gradient from the Gradient palette or toolbox to the Swatches palette.

 

[apepp]

...transparency is controlled by the transparency palette, a very different way than photoshop gradients, Illustrator CS2 doesn't work the same way as Photoshop when dealing with gradients...

andrew

 

[warai]

Ah, I see. I was, as apepp suspected, not acutally looking at the help file for Illustrator CS2. Why does clicking "help" in Illustrator include help files for other Adobe products installed on my system? That's annoying... Oh well.

Anyway, the whole point was that I wanted to change the transparency of one of the colors in a gradient -- like if I wanted to make headlights that fanned out from a flashlight and faded into nothingness some distance away. Is using an opacity mask the only way to do this sort of thing in Illustrator CS2, or is there a specific option for altering the transparency of just a single color in a gradient?

 

[apepp]

..there is no easy way or option in illustrator to change opacity of a single colour within a gradient that i know of...

...it can only be changed by percentage...

...with the opacity masks, they assist with blending so you could use a gradient mask to blend the edges into a background...

...a solution may be for you to create your gradient with opacity in photoshop on a transparent background and then import this into illustrator as a psd layered format file, retaining any transparency used...

andrew