# transparent gradients in InDesign????



## wicky (Jan 27, 2006)

In InDesign I often want to use a gradient which starts with a opaque colour and ends with no colour (ie. transparent). Is there a way to do this in ID... it doesn't seem to work? 

So far, I've been making and exporting the gradients from photoshop, but it's a bit naff.


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## Lt Major Burns (Jan 27, 2006)

this is very weird.  i spent all day yesterday trying to do the EXACT same thing in illustrator.  apparently it's just not possible.


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## Thank The Cheese (Jan 28, 2006)

I know how to do it in Illustrator, but the same procedure doesn't work in InDesign, so either it can't be done, or there is are different steps involved. I would guess that Adobe are presuming you have created all your elements in Illustrator/Photoshop, and using InDesign to just lay then out. After all, that is what InDesign is for. If InDesign could do everything Illustrator could, there'd be no reason to make both applications. 

If you have Illustrator, you can do it there and export it accross to InDesign. That way it will still be vector based so you can still resize it with no quality loss. 


*Opacity Masks in Illustrator*

1. Create an object you want to apply the trasparency to (ie. a box with a solid fill colour, or a group of objects, whatever. If you use more than one object, make sure it is grouped). 

2. Create a new object over the top of the first, and apply a black and white gradient fill to it. This is done by creating the object, then bringing up the gradient palette (Window > Gradient). Then, with the object still selected, click in the gradient fill image inside the Gradient palette. 

You will use this gradient object to determine which parts of the first object are transparent, and which are not. 

3. Select the gradient object, then Shift-click the other object, selecting them both at the same time. Or just drag a select box around them and select them that way. It doesn't really matter, so long as you have two objects selected, and the object on the top is the gradient fill object. 

4. Bring upthe Transparency Palette (Window > Transparency). Click the fly-out menu of the transparency palette by clicking the small arrow button at the top-right, and choose "Make opacity mask". 

5. Wipe away your tears as you gaze upon the glory of your first opacity mask 



Frankly, it is a little over-complicated for simple masks like this. Used more complexly, the opacity mask is friggin amazing, but I urge Adobe to include a more easy to use (and find) tool for simple transparency gradients. I must admit Corel Draw's transparency tool is a lot better than Illustrators for this sort of thing (but unlike Illustrator's, Corel's tool was very limited in what it could achieve).


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## wicky (Jan 31, 2006)

Thanks for that CheeseMeister. 

I can see that I'm going to have fun with the transparency mask. It's a bit of a pain that this isn't available directly in ID, and also that cut and paste from Illustrator drops the mask... but better than nothing, or custom bitmapped PSD's.


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## fryke (Jan 31, 2006)

Eek. Gradients... Eww. Transparency.  ... If you want your documents to also _print_ right, you'll try and stay away from having too much fun with those.  PostScript - even version 3 and up - doesn't seem to be TOO good about those. (I guess _that's_ the real reason why those aren't prominent features in ID and Illu.)


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## Lt Major Burns (Jan 31, 2006)

no, but it means that you can do these: 







they're completely useless, but show that post-script gradients and transparency do have a use.


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## wicky (Jan 31, 2006)

_Wooh there tiger_... a fairly heavy use of gradients from _The Burns Unit_, but much appreciated. =)

When I say have a lot of fun, that doesn't necessarily translate as _"gratuitous use of..."_. What I am mostly interested in is being able to create a reasonably complex vector shape that can run from an opaque colour through to transparency, without the necessity to re-visit Photoshop every 2 minutes.

A gradient shape that can be affected by the background colour.

The gradient mask in Illustrator is the exact thing, but would be that much better if I could apply it directly in ID. 

Oh well, CS2, not perfect... but better than my old quill.


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