fading the corner in?

"peter" wrote in message

I have a green rectangle with some acorns and leaves in the top left corner. I want just that corner to fade to transparency. It is for some letterhead and the corner will be flush against the top left corner of the paper. Basically, part of the leaves and the green should fade to transparency, or white. I’ve got it close to what I want, but it’s not real smooth. I put a layer mask on it and then used the gradient tool, with the blending mode set to normal or dissolve, although it’s hard to tell if there is a difference between the two settings. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,

Peter

that is the correct way to do it
try varying the opacity and other settings of the gradient, make sure it’s linear not radial
shape, drag from the corner, maybe not over the entire image, just the graphic
area covered etc
don’t use dissolve unless you want dots in the effect

KatWoman wrote:

"peter" wrote in message

I have a green rectangle with some acorns and leaves in the top left corner. I want just that corner to fade to transparency. It is for some letterhead and the corner will be flush against the top left corner of the paper. Basically, part of the leaves and the green should fade to transparency, or white. I’ve got it close to what I want, but it’s not real smooth. I put a layer mask on it and then used the gradient tool, with the blending mode set to normal or dissolve, although it’s hard to tell if there is a difference between the two settings. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,

Peter

that is the correct way to do it
try varying the opacity and other settings of the gradient, make sure it’s linear not radial
shape, drag from the corner, maybe not over the entire image, just the graphic
area covered etc
don’t use dissolve unless you want dots in the effect

Thanks for you reassurance, Katwoman. I’m thinking this problem is actually being caused by my printer! Regarding other settings, I have both the transparency box and dither box checked. Does that sound right? I have the transparency box checked because we will be printing on beige paper and I want it to fade to that beige color. I don’t know what dither does, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference if I uncheck it.

Again, thanks,

Peter
KatWoman wrote:

"peter" wrote in message

I have a green rectangle with some acorns and leaves in the top left corner. I want just that corner to fade to transparency. It is for some letterhead and the corner will be flush against the top left corner of the paper. Basically, part of the leaves and the green should fade to transparency, or white. I’ve got it close to what I want, but it’s not real smooth. I put a layer mask on it and then used the gradient tool, with the blending mode set to normal or dissolve, although it’s hard to tell if there is a difference between the two settings. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,

Peter

that is the correct way to do it
try varying the opacity and other settings of the gradient, make sure it’s linear not radial
shape, drag from the corner, maybe not over the entire image, just the graphic
area covered etc
don’t use dissolve unless you want dots in the effect

I don’t know about those settings much, but I heard it discussed in the Illustrator group a lot

are you saving in a lossy format that might compress the gradient? make sure the gradient itself only has two points one on either end?

"peter" wrote in message

Thanks for you reassurance, Katwoman. I’m thinking this problem is actually being caused by my printer! Regarding other settings, I have both the transparency box and dither box checked. Does that sound right? I have the transparency box checked because we will be printing on beige paper and I want it to fade to that beige color. I don’t know what dither does, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference if I uncheck it.

Again, thanks,

Peter
KatWoman wrote:

"peter" wrote in message

I have a green rectangle with some acorns and leaves in the top left corner. I want just that corner to fade to transparency. It is for some letterhead and the corner will be flush against the top left corner of the paper. Basically, part of the leaves and the green should fade to transparency, or white. I’ve got it close to what I want, but it’s not real smooth. I put a layer mask on it and then used the gradient tool, with the blending mode set to normal or dissolve, although it’s hard to tell if there is a difference between the two settings. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,

Peter

that is the correct way to do it
try varying the opacity and other settings of the gradient, make sure it’s
linear not radial
shape, drag from the corner, maybe not over the entire image, just the graphic
area covered etc
don’t use dissolve unless you want dots in the effect

I save it in PSD because I need to import it into CorelDraw and I need to preserve the transparency. I’ll have to experiment with some other formats. As for the gradient, I just draw the line, so I assume it is one point on either end. Anyway, thanks!

Peter
KatWoman wrote:

I don’t know about those settings much, but I heard it discussed in the Illustrator group a lot

are you saving in a lossy format that might compress the gradient? make sure the gradient itself only has two points one on either end?

"peter" wrote in message

Thanks for you reassurance, Katwoman. I’m thinking this problem is actually being caused by my printer! Regarding other settings, I have both the transparency box and dither box checked. Does that sound right? I have the transparency box checked because we will be printing on beige paper and I want it to fade to that beige color. I don’t know what dither does, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference if I uncheck it.

Again, thanks,

Peter
KatWoman wrote:

"peter" wrote in message

I have a green rectangle with some acorns and leaves in the top left corner. I want just that corner to fade to transparency. It is for some letterhead and the corner will be flush against the top left corner of the paper. Basically, part of the leaves and the green should fade to transparency, or white. I’ve got it close to what I want, but it’s not real smooth. I put a layer mask on it and then used the gradient tool, with the blending mode set to normal or dissolve, although it’s hard to tell if there is a difference between the two settings. Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks,

Peter

that is the correct way to do it
try varying the opacity and other settings of the gradient, make sure it’s
linear not radial
shape, drag from the corner, maybe not over the entire image, just the graphic
area covered etc
don’t use dissolve unless you want dots in the effect

In article ,
"peter" wrote:

I save it in PSD because I need to import it into CorelDraw and I need to preserve the transparency. I’ll have to experiment with some other formats. As for the gradient, I just draw the line, so I assume it is one point on either end. Anyway, thanks!

With both offset presses and consumer inkjet printers, it can be very very difficult to achieve a smooth gradient, especially a smooth gradient between light colors, for the simple reason that these kinds of printing devices are capable of reproducing only a relatively small number of distinct shades. Breaks and "banding" in gradients are common.

One way to combat this is to make your gradient in the layer mask, and then add a small amount of hue protected noise to the gradient. A great way to do this is the old KPT "hue protected noise" filter, though I do not believe that filter (a real gem, and very useful) is still available or supported. Another way is to select the center part of the radient (you must take care not to add noise to the place where the layer is solid black or solid white) and then add a small amount of noise with the Filter->Noise->Add Noise command.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
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Thanks, Tacit. I will have to experiment with adding noise.

I found out the hard way about the differences in printers. I ordered some letterhead from in internet printing company. I printed their PDF proof on an inkjet printer at work, and although the fade was not perfect, it was certainly acceptable. I approved the proof and later received 5000 sheets of letterhead. The fade fades nicely for a little and then almost appears to be "cut off", forming what looks like a straight line. This is the exact effect I spent so much time trying to avoid! Oh well, the letterhead still looks pretty good.

Thanks,

Peter
tacit wrote:

In article ,
"peter" wrote:

I save it in PSD because I need to import it into CorelDraw and I need to preserve the transparency. I’ll have to experiment with some other formats. As for the gradient, I just draw the line, so I assume it is one point on either end. Anyway, thanks!

With both offset presses and consumer inkjet printers, it can be very very difficult to achieve a smooth gradient, especially a smooth gradient between light colors, for the simple reason that these kinds of printing devices are capable of reproducing only a relatively small number of distinct shades. Breaks and "banding" in gradients are common.
One way to combat this is to make your gradient in the layer mask, and then add a small amount of hue protected noise to the gradient. A great way to do this is the old KPT "hue protected noise" filter, though I do not believe that filter (a real gem, and very useful) is still available or supported. Another way is to select the center part of the radient (you must take care not to add noise to the place where the layer is solid black or solid white) and then add a small amount of noise with the Filter->Noise->Add Noise command.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com

In article ,
"peter" wrote:

I found out the hard way about the differences in printers. I ordered some letterhead from in internet printing company. I printed their PDF proof on an inkjet printer at work, and although the fade was not perfect, it was certainly acceptable. I approved the proof and later received 5000 sheets of letterhead. The fade fades nicely for a little and then almost appears to be "cut off", forming what looks like a straight line. This is the exact effect I spent so much time trying to avoid! Oh well, the letterhead still looks pretty good.

You can never judge a proof of something printed on a printing press by something printed on a consumer inkjet printer. They use radically different technologies; color, gradients, and so forth will all look quite a bit different.

I tend not to order from Internet print shops; they tend, in my experience, to be very poor quality, and often staffed by people with little understanding of offset printing. If you use a local printer instead, you can actually get a true contract proof, which will show exactly how the piece will look on press.

—
Art, photography, shareware, polyamory, literature, kink: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Nanohazard, Geek shirts, and more: http://www.villaintees.com