How do you make gradient swatches?

[kellyjaye1]

InDesign is my main tool but trying to do a little more Illustrator work.  Most everything carries over from InDesign but something about creating a gradient swatch doesnt seem to be the same.  In InDesign, I generally create the two colors I want as two separate solid swatches.  Then I start a new gradient swatch and select those two solid swatches.  Is there a similar way to do this in Illustrator?  Im using CS4

[Larry G. Schneider · Accepted solution]

Almost the same. Make your two color swatches. Then open the Gradient panel from the Window menu if it is not already available. Drag one of your colors to one end of the Gradient bar and the other to the other end. If you want to add more colors, just drag to the appropriate place. Adjust as you like. Then drag from the fill window into the swatch panel.

[kellyjaye1]

ah perfect! Thats exactly what I need, thanx! Never would have guessed drag and drop!

[_scott_]

You can do the same thing in Illustrator.

The primary difference is with Illustrator you don't have to have swatches first. With Indesign you do.

In Illustrator you can simply click a gradient stop in the Gradient Panel and adjust the color in the Color Panel. Can't do that in Indesign.

[kellyjaye1]

I prefer swatches whenever I can have them, makes revisions MUCH easier, especially with gradients. And actually with InDesign, you do not have to have swatches for a gradient either, and you also can click on a stop in the gradient panel. I do it all the time.

[kellyjaye1]

Just found something else similar that I need, is there a way to do the same thing but as a directional feather?  Having one end be the swatch and other end be transparent?

[Cheryl_Graham]

When you click on a color stop in the Gradient panel, or double-click a stop on the Gradient Annotator (CS4 only), you can change the opacity to 0%, or anything in between. Transparency was a new feature in CS4 — previous versions won't have it.