Need Help True black to transparent fade or gradient.

[altereddezignz]

Can anyone tell me how to do a true gradient fade from transparent to black.

I am doing prints for a boat store and i have to match the havoc logo from green to black but i always get a grey in the middle and it looks horrible. All the havoc logos go from black to green with no grey.

 

[bob]

That is the single hardest thing to print on a CMYK machine. The gradient is rendered in CMYK, not in black and if all things are not perfect it will wander from green to magenta in the mid-tones. There is no magic bean.

 

[altereddezignz]

I normally dont have an issue with off colors like the magenta and so on just the stupid grey lol.. I have even tried doing a black back layer and then a green to black gradient over that or even a transparent to black and i still get the grey.. Stupid printers lol...

 

[ChrisN]

I don't know where the transparent part comes in if you're going from green to black, but the grey comes from trying to do a gradient between two spot colors. Try converting both of your colors to RGB or CMYK, and the grey should go away.

If you need to fade between two spot colors, the best way is to have two separate gradients: one with Spot 1 to transparent on the bottom, and another with transparent to Spot 2 on top. In Illustrator, you can can use two fills in your shape to accomplish that.

 

[shoresigns]

When you're fading from a colour to black in CMYK, you need to add your CMY values to the black end of the gradient. Transitioning to 100K will not give you what you're expecting (well, it will if you understand how CMYK works).

 

[ThatGuy]

shoresigns is correct. To make a black to "whatever" gradient, use 100, 100, 100, 100 to make black. This has worked for me every time when printing a pdf or other using cmyk embedded.

 

[boxerbay]

both colors must be CMYK. if you go PANTONE to 100% BLACK or CMYK to 100% BLACK you will get the grey. try CMYK GREEN to C30 M30 Y30 K100

 

[rjssigns]

Can always try the Blend function in Ai. I've had good success with it.

 

[altereddezignz]

Makes since. Thanks for all the help.

 

[altereddezignz]

As you can see from images the one picture that has a nice black to transparent is ok. The next is the same exact black to transparent but there is grey there in middle. The next one is the same but black to green. Any ideas. Have tried cmyk to cmyk. Rgb to rgb. ?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Make the object you want to have the gradient solid green and then copy and paste the same object in front of that object. Make a black to white gradient and then set the transparency setting to, "Multiply" instead of, "Normal".

Gradient

• Solventinkjet
• Oct 27, 2017
• 1