I've spent some time of late attempting to conquer what I call the "Gradient Monster", by which I mean that the concept of gradients did not come across that easily to me.
Fast-forward to this morning. I've created a simple two-colour gradient using the New Gradient Swatch option in the Swatch panel in Adobe InDesign CS5.
My left stop colour is Red (CMYK 0, 100, 100, 25) and my right stop colour is Dark Red (CMYK 15, 100, 100, 70)
If I have correctly grasped the concept of a gradient, any object's interior (fill) that I swatch using a particular gradient should blend from one stop colour to the next, with transitional colours in-between.
If I select linear gradient, the transition runs along a single linear axis from one point to another. If I select radial gradient, the transition runs from the center of the object outward. I can reverse both a linear and a radial gradient by simply clicking "Reverse" in the Gradient panel.
Now to my question.
When I apply the above gradient, what I should see is the selected object filled with the applied gradient, with - for the sake of argument - stop-colour #1 on the left and stop-colour #2 on the right. I don't see that effect, however.
Instead, what I see is stop-colour #1 (Dark Red) on the left and a faded (white) red colour on the right. What I want to see on the right is stop-colour #2. Not a faded version of it (hence the "white").
Put more simply, why am I seeing a white-faded stop colour at all? And how can I rid my gradient of this effect?
The above image shows my gradient. Notice the faded "white" part on the left; it should be red, not faded red. The dark red on right is just fine.
This image is from an MS-Word document; it's how I would like the gradient to look: dark red on one side, red (or bright red) on the other. No fading.
Any suggestions?
I thank you in advance.
- Pat