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Introduction to the Gradient Editor

As of gimp-2.2.3 there is only one way to get to the gradient editor, you must go through the Gradient Palette and either copy a palette found there or edit one. Starting with the Edit button in the Gradient Palette can be confusing because the gradients that come with TheGIMP cannot be edited. It is much better to start with the Duplicate Gradient button found in the lower portion of the dialog.

I always liked TheGIMP's golden gradient and I like an edited version of this gradient even better. We will be using a copy of this gradient in the Modify A Palette portion of this tutorial, so it is used in this introduction to the editor as well.

Highlight the Golden gradient in the Gradient Palette and duplicate it by touching the duplicate button in the lower portion of the dialog. This action will make a copy of the highlighted palette and it will launch the Gradient Editor.

The Gradient Editor shows the gradient name in an editable text box. Next, a display of the colors of the gradient. The gradient is a series of segments, which can be seen directly below the color area in the dialog. Each segment is indicated by two black triangles and one white triangle. The black triangles are called "Handles" and each shows the end of one segment and the beginning of another. The center of a segment is shown by a white triangle which is called a "Center".

To select a single segment, left-click with the mouse on the "Center". To work on two connected segments, shift-left-click on both of the "Centers". More than two connected segments can be selected by shift-left-clicking on the first segment and the last segment.

Working with this on the actual widget will make more sense than reading this over and over again....

A right click with the mouse anywhere in the color area of the dialog will display the Gradient Editor menu. The menu options work on the selected segment(s). This might seem like stating the obvious, except for the fact that there is no undo with this editor as there is with TheGIMPs image editing tools and plug-ins. It is very easy to click in the segment area you want to edit and find yourself editing the selected segment....

The Gradient Editor is also one of TheGIMPs dockable dialogs; I usually dock this editor with the Layers, Channels and Paths dialogs even if it is so that I always know where it is.

Modify a Gradient

Rename the Gradient

The name of the gradient can be changed in the Gradient Editor, it is highly recommended that you do this. Once you start to use this editor there is a chance you will use it quite often and naming your gradients from the start will be helpful.

Delete Segments

My goal is a lighter gradient; deleting the darker ends of TheGIMPs Golden Gradient is a good first step towards achieving this. Make certain that only the left segment is selected and then choose Delete Segment from the Gradient Editor Menu. The gradient spreads the new leftmost segment to fill the Editor window

Select the segment on the far right and delete this segment the same way.

Redistribute Segments

The remaining segments have colors closer to what I wanted for my lighter golden gradient. The redistributed segments take to much of the gradient area. The next step is to spread the handles evenly acrossed the gradient area, so easily accomplished by selecting all of the segments and then choosing "Re-distribute Handles" from the editor menu.

You can also redistribute just a few of the segments by highlighting just a few and using that option in the menu.

The segments can also be redistributed by hand by moving the handles and centers with the mouse one at a time. Try this in your editor -- the colors will move with them.

All sorts of examples: a logo made with the new Light Golden Gradient and images of what the gradient looked like when drawn at each stage of the presentation.

The original gradient.

Deleted dark segments.

Handles re-distributed.

Create a Gradient

Making a new sky using the Gradient Editor has been the best way I have found yet to remove things like building and power lines from what are otherwise perfectly good photographs. Even the clone tool cannot work so well as the blue sky is more of a gradient than a big patch of the same color.

This is a photograph I took of a sculpture in Mountain View, CA called Fantasy by Lou Pearson. The sculpture was a beautiful piece but getting a good image of it was difficult due to the busy environment it was placed in.

The goal here is to make a gradient that can be used to replace the sky with the same colors.

Start a New Gradient

Select the "New" button in the Gradient Palette. Change the title "Untitled" to something meaningful.

Use TheGIMPs colorpicker to pick the darkest and lightest colors in the sky and put them into the GIMPs toolbox as the foreground and background colors. Then select from the Gradient Editor Menu Load Left Color From ->FG Color and the same for the right hand side of the gradient for the other picked color.

Add More Handles and Segments

This simple gradient would make a lovely sky. It is easier to make it match the original sky more by picking more colors in between the first two points and adding those colors to the gradient at the same interval.

Add some new handles and centers to the same gradient with Split Gradient Segment Uniformly; I split mine into 4 uniform parts.

I drew a line and picked the photograph at approximately equal intervals and added picked colors from those places to my gradient.

The gradient is much richer with four segments and the three additional picked colors.

The gradient was applied to the background of a adequately masked image; after you make the gradient it can take a lot of tries to blend it nicely.