Creating the Rainbow

You now know where gradients are handled in Paint Shop Pro and what different types exist. It is time to pass on to the serious stuff and start to create our rainbow. The first step is to create the general aspect of our gradient. We will deal with colours later.

1. Click on the Edit button in the gradient dialog box.
   
   
Paint Shop Pro displays the gradient editor.



Figure 4: Paint Shop Pro 7's gradient editor.


2. Click on the New button, then - in the small panel that appears - enter Rainbow. Click on OK.
   
   
The existing gradient is replaced by a two-colour gradient. As our rainbow will have seven colours, we are going to have to create five extra steps in our gradient.


3. Click five times just below the coloured bar in the Gradient area.
   
   
You have just created five small markers (little squares topped with a triangle) that represent the different steps in your gradient. Don't worry too much about the evenness of their positioning, as we will deal with that a little later.


4. Select the second marker from the left.
   
   
The little triangle changes from white to black, thus showing that it has been selected.


5. Enter a value of 16 in the Location field, to the right of the gradient.
   
   
The marker positions itself at 16% of the bar length.

This step consists of placing five central markers at regular intervals. Repeat points 4 and 5 for the other markers in your gradient with the following values: 33, 50, 67 and 84%.



Figure 5: The seven markers are evenly spaced.


We can deal with colours now that the markers are in the right places.