A gradient object is a set of data that defines the progression of colors in a gradient fill operation. Gradients can be used to customize the progression of colors in a fill, both in terms of chromaticity and translucency. Gradients are shared resources that can be exported to and imported from a file.
a customized gradient
The GT Shapes don’t use the gradient object. Instead, they rely on the workspace settings color 1, color 2, alpha 1 and alpha 2.
Creating Gradients
Gradients are create using the gradient manager (found under the objects menu). You can have as many gradients as you want, however, only one can be used at a time; this is referred to as the active gradient.
A gradient can generally be represented in one of two forms: as a series of irregularly spaced points or as a series of regularly spaced pixels. These are referred to as Points and Bitmap gradients respectively.
Points
A points gradient is created using the New button. This creates a gradient with the current colors as the end points, you can then add points by left-clicking the point of interest. The new point is created with the current color. You can edit existing points by selecting them. You do this by clicking the point. The current color changes to that of the point; you can then move the point as you wish or change its color by changing the current color and alpha. You can fine tune the movement using the arrow-keys or apply the finest tuning using arrow+shift. Tab cycles selection through the point. You can deselect by tapping Escape or clicking the navy blue return button . Points can also be deleted, this is done by right-clicking them.
Bitmap
A bitmap gradient is just a line of pixels. These can be imported from the palette using the get palette button or from the first scanline of the current layer using get scanline.
Saving and Loading
Gradients can be saved to and loaded from files. Loading can be done from files of various formats, including the internal .gra, GIMP’s .ggr, Photoshop’s .grd and SVG Gradients (.svg). Saving must be done in the internal format because it is the only format that supports both types of gradients (GIMP only supports Points).
Points