when we try to make gradients often they print out with horrible results or they have kind of dodgy
rgb outputs today's video will give you insights on how to make perfect gradients that you maybe
have never heard before one of the first tips that can help you make better more attractive gradients
is to opt for radial gradients over linear gradients now adobe illustrator is my go-to
choice for most graphics but due to it being a vector-based program gradients can be tricky
to get right having the center of your gradient towards one corner really does help to add depths
and a new level of smoothness to the outputs often the radial gradients will also have less banding
compared to linear gradients which is obviously optimal for prints now taking that a step further
the freeform gradient tool in illustrator is a super smooth option using this tool you can have
a far deeper level of control over the mood and also the layout of your gradient you can pick and
choose where the notes go and you can really make some stunning results with this tool but the best
is yet to come and as we move through the tips in today's video you will see why now let's ask
this question what if we still have banding on our gradients there are various different things that
we can actually do but the first one is something you can try in illustrator that likely will help
this problem and yes i know how much of a headache it can be when having banding on gradients
but you head up to effect texture and then we're going to add some grain
we want to add a very small amount of grain to the gradient so something between one and four
is normally a wise choice and then play with the contrast to something that best suits your
project and your gradients the grain should help to smoothen out the banding issues when printing
so give it a test print and see how it compares to the original printouts before we look at more
ways to deal with banding there is one really cool thing we can do with grain on gradients
so take a shape and then copy it to the command or ctrl c paste a duplicate exactly over the top
with command or ctrl f for this new shape we want a linear gradient with one side totally
black and the opposite side totally white however the white side should have a zero percent opacity
we're going to need to adjust the slider so that we have the dark side
only covering the shadow aspects of our gradients and by that i mean the gradient based layer
then add a grain to this layer and experiment with it until you're happy with the end results
we're going to change the transparency blend mode to multiply and then lower
the overall opacity of the layer now we can do the same to the lighter sides of the gradient
but in complete reverse so the black side has zero percent opacity and the white is set to 100
also the blend mode of this one should be something like overlay
but you can experiment with blend modes and see what works best for your specific design
these shadow and highlight texture gradients are really good for illustrations and digital arts
and they're just fun to play with and just a quick bonus tip did you know that you can
take texts and overlay it on gradients in illustrator and even if you have multiple
layers like we've just worked with you can still select everything and then apply a clipping mask
you will still be able to edit your text and i just think that's a pretty cool tip
but anyway addressing that banding once more the more colors you use
the better the gradient will typically look when printed so take this example here that's
made up of just two gradient nodes or two colors instead of comprising our grading of
just two colors instead we can take two end colors and then use two more middle colors
we then press w for the blend tool and blend the three colors together it now has more depth
more character and it's likely going to print out as a better quality than the original one
as a general rule the more colors you apply to a gradient the less banding you probably will have
now it should be noted that photoshop often supplies better and smoother gradients
more easily but sometimes we have to use illustrator for specific projects
and so it's handy to know how to make smooth gradients for vector-based graphics
photoshop relies on pixels instead of vectors and actually comes up trumps in this instance
but if we are working illustrator work in a document raster effects of 72 ppi but then when
it comes to printing change this to 300 ppi for the output this will help ensure that your docker
master effect settings are printed at high quality and i hope that will help you print out and design
more fluid smoother and more cool gradients if you want to learn something else about
graphic design do click a video on screen until next time guys design your future today peace
you