Welcome to the gradient tutorial for Adobe Photoshop. In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to create a gradient.

A gradient effect is when one color slowly fades into another color. As you can see, even this website has a gradient effect of light blue, to white. It's a pretty nice effect, and in this tutorial, we're going to cover how to do it, in Photoshop.

The first thing you want to do is open Photoshop. Then, go to file, select new, and have it be 7x5 inches. Afterwords, select the gradient tool.

Next, look at the color select squares, often used for the paint tool. You should also see, that there is another color selecter, right beside it.

Click the first selecter, and click what color you want the gradient to begin with. Same thing for the second selector, only this will be the ending color. I'm going to select red for the first, and green for the second, but you can do any colors you want.

Next, click and drag on the white box. You should see that a line is following the mouse cursor. Make a very small line, almost like it's a dot in the middle of the picture. Now, let go of the left mouse button. It should look something like this.

If it doesn't look exactly like that, or if the colors are on different sides, that's ok. You have just created a gradient! But, it doesn't look all that great. It's just one color, and then another, rather than a color fading to another. So, let's try this again, but a bit different.

Even though we're going to create another gradient, but you won't have to erase the current one. It will automatically do so, after you create a new one.

This time, make another line using the gradient tool, but make it longer. You can even go off the box in the middle, if you want.

Now, as you can see, the gradient is now a lot smoother. Now, let's try a gradient from a different angle. Instead of left to right, try up to down. If you've done up to down for your first few attempts, then try left to right.

Good. Now, try diagonal.

Great! You just learned how to use the gradient tool, in Photoshop! Try experementing with different colors, and gradient smoothness. We reccomend having a gradient from black to white. It looks very nice, and proffesional.

If you have any questions regarding how to use the gradient tool, post your question in the comments below. We, and others, may help you.