transparency and gradients, printing artboard 2

[phatcow]

I have a couple of questions
1. How do you make the gradient fill grade from a solid colour to transparent?
and
2. I have an image that extends my artboard's boundries but it is still in the printable area however I ONLY want what is on my artboard to print.

 

[dimoj]

You didn't mention what version of Illy you are using so I will answer for CS.

1. Create your shape filled with the colour you want to fade to transparent. Create another shape to cover it and fill that top shape with a black to white gradient. Select both shapes then in the Transparency palette click the drop down menu and choose 'Make Opacity Mask'.

2. When you go to File>Print, in the 'Setup' section of the print dialogue there is an option to 'Crop Artwork to Artboard'.

 

[phatcow]

Thanks Dimoj that was really helpful, Though i use Illustrator 10 and it doesn't seem to have a crop to artboard option, so I still can't work that one out, I'm experimenting with masks at the moment to see if I can do it that way.