Making background darker to lighter

I would like to create a background that begins with one color and gradually changes to a lighter color similar to the home page of www.platowoodwork.com. This type of background is on both the side panel and main panel of the page. I am not looking for textures or vertical or horizontal lines. Just a simple effect.

How would I go about creating this type of background?

Thanks,

Robin

use the gradient tool

Here’s the problem. I get the effect that I want in Photoshop. Everything looks fine but then when I bring it into ImageReady to export it to a gif or jpg file, I see lines and colors that I don’t want and didn’t see in Photoshop. What should I do?

These are the steps I took in Photoshop to create a similar effect to www.platowoodworks.com.


1. File > New
Width: 400 Pixels, Height: 600 Pixels, Resolution: 72, Mode: RGB, Contents: White
2. In layers window, select create a new layer
3. In toolbar – set foreground to #EFAE7B, set background to #FFFFFF
4. On Layers palette – select Create new fill or adjustment layer – select gradient
5. Select foreground to background gradient, Style: linear, Angle: 90, Scale: 100, Check Dither, Check Align with layer

From Photoshop, I can save it as say Plato.psd. When I reopen the file, everything looks fine but as soon as I go into ImageReady I see lines and colors that should not be there. Essentially, the colors are being separated out rather than blending into one another. How can this problem be resolved?



Please help.

Robin

hi there

in imageready you can choose several formats (like you have surely recognized):
*.gif
*.jpg
*.png

SAVE as gif
the quality of the gradient depends on the settings (colors) in the OPTIMIZE tab. play around with the values and you soon will see how it takes effect on the result.
more colors = better result.

i'd prefer SAVING as jpg
this format is better if you have many different colors. and a gradient has a lot of them.

think about this and try again. be lucky.
tigercat.

I tried saving the gradient to jpg with a maximum setting and it has not helped. I need more specific information to resolve this problem.

This is what I see in Photoshop.

http://www.robinsnest-webdesigns.co...to_Gradient.doc

This is the gradient saved to jpg from ImageReady.

www.robinsnest-webdesigns.com/Plato/Plato.html



Robin

There is no need to export to image ready, you can 'save as for web..." right from photoshop...

this seems more to be a problem with your color management in windows. both *.doc and *.html just look perfect.
right click on desktop -> properties/settings or something -> settings -> 32 bit (High color)

TigerCat,

Thank you for coming up with the answer. When I changed the Control Panel Display properties to True Color (24 bit) from High Color (16 bit) that certainly improved the gradient.

However, I cannot depend on others to have a certain monitor resolution. I guess that's why www.platowoodwork.com was done in Flash.

Robin