Adobe Illustrator Tutorial: How to Use Your Gradient Tool

In this tutorial I will show you how to use your Gradient Tool in Adobe Illustrator. I have used a lot of programs in my life time. Figuring out how to use the gradient tool for Adobe Illustrator was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to figure out. I finally figured the gradient tool out and now I'm passing it on to you. I will explain how to use the Gradient Tool the easiest way I know and I will explain it step by step.

We will use a rectangle to create the gradients. So, go ahead and create a new document to work on. Then click the rectangle tool in the left panel. Draw a rectangle on your document that you just created. The size really doesn't matter, we are just going to use it as an example for this tutorial.

Alright, now you will need to open your gradient panel if it is not already opened. If you do not see your gradient panel on the right side of your program, go to the top of your window and click Window > Gradient. Your Gradient Panel will open. Double click the two arrows beside Gradient to expand the properties box.

In the expanded box, you will see the Type box. Drop that box down and select Linear. We will work with the linear gradient first. By default, you will see the black and white gradient. You can easily change the color of the gradient. At the bottom of this box you will see the two Gradient Slider arrows. The one on the right is black and the one on the left is white. To change the two colors of the gradient, click the Swatches tab. Click the color that you want to change the black slider to and drag it to the black slider. Look at the image titled Changing Gradient Color to get a visual of this part.

To add more colors to the gradient, click the color in the Swatches panel and drag the color to where you want it. That will add another gradient slider. You can add as many gradient sliders as you want. Just drag the colors to the gradient bar. To change the direction of the gradient, change the angle. You can also change the type of gradient to Radial. Drop the Type Box down and select Radial. Change the colors the same way you did above.