Kendra Schaefer

In Inkscape, creating gradients is easy, and I tend to find that editing them is particularly simple using the Inkscape interface. You now know how to apply a gradient, linear or radial, to your shapes, by selecting your shape, opening the Fill and Stroke manager, then clicking the gradient buttons in the appropriate tab. But what about changing gradient direction, or editing the color of your gradients?

I’m going to walk you through the steps of applying a linear gradient fill to a square shape. You can apply this same process to any fill or stroke, using linear or radial gradients, to get some fairly realistic effects.

Let’s start from the beginning. Draw a shape. Mine is just a plain square with black fill, and with the stroke turned off. Select your shape by clicking on it with the selection tool. A bounding box should appear around the outside of the shape.

With the shape selected, open up your fill and color manager by pressing Shift + Ctrl + F.

In your Fill and Stroke Manager, make sure you’re in the Fill tab, then click the linear gradient button.

By default, Inkscape applies a gradient that fades from your solid fill color to total transparency. What we’re going to do is change the current gradient so that it goes from a totally solid dark green to a partially transparent light green. So we want to edit the gradient that we just applied to the shape. To do that, click on the edit button.

The screen that appears is called your Gradient Editor.

Editing Gradient Color

Gradients work by taking two or more totally different colors, called “stops”, and blending them together smoothly. Each stop can be manipulated as its own color. Each stop can have its own transparency and properties. You could, for example, have one stop that is red, one stop that is blue, and one stop that is yellow, and the “gradient” would blend all three of these colors together into one smooth rainbow.

By default, Inkscape has created a two-stop gradient. The first stop – the beginning of the gradient – is solid black. The second stop – the end of the gradient – is black too, but the black color is totally transparent. In my Gradient Editor above, you are looking at the settings for my solid black stop. To see all of the different stops in your gradient, and edit them individually, select your desired stop from the drop-down box at the top of the gradient editor.

I’m going to change the colors of my first stop to a dark green (stop3157 in my panel – will probably be a different number in yours) by using the HSLA sliders, but you can use the RGB, CMYK, or Wheel options to edit your stop color if you’re more comfortable with those.

Now, using the drop-down box, I’m going to switch over to my second stop, and make that a light green. I’m also going to make sure it’s not quite so transparent my changing my Alpha (“A” slider) properties.

Awesome – now I’ve made my own gradient.

But what if I want more than two stops? Well, I’ll add another one by clicking the “Add stop” button, switching over to the new stop using my drop down box, and editing that stop’s properties.

Okay, now my gradient colors are the way I want them. Close the Gradient editor.

Editing Gradient Direction

By default, linear gradients in Inkscape go from left to right. But what if you want the gradient to flow in a different direction?

First, make sure your shape is still selected, and switch over to your Edit Path by Nodes tool by clicking its icon in the tool panel. You’ll see some dots appear around the edges of your shape. You’ll also see some gradient direction handles appear. You can edit your gradient direction by using the Edit Path by Nodes tool to arrange the gradient at any angle.

When I pull the handles in different directions, my gradient changes.

And that’s it. Those are the basics for using and editing gradients and colors in Inkscape. Play around with radial gradients, transparencies, and other features to see what you get. Happy designing!