Black to Translucent Gradient

[RachleK]

I am trying to put a gradient over a picture that goes from black to translucent.  I cant seem to find an option when creating a new gradient swatch to pick no color.  Is there something I am missing, or what?  Any advice would be great.  Thanks!

[SJRiegel · Accepted solution]

Make your box a solid color, and then use gradient feather to fade to transparent.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

You use the transparency as gradient feather on the frane you want to use, you can also drag with the gradient feather tool: the chessboard icon in your tools. There is no option to add transparency inside a (gradient) colour itself.

[John Mensinger]

Another option that may produce a desirable result, depending on the underlying image, would be to set a black-to-white gradient and set its blend mode to Multiply.

[DBLjan]

All you need to know, is that InDesign isnt like Illustrator regarding fade from something to transparent – you have to select a color and you cant control the opacity.

The way John explains is a global approach/workaround to use in various gfx-programs.
Like said above, your tool is a 'effect' (Windows » Effects). Here you can control some options with values which you cant control just with the gradient tool. To add a effect to lets say just the box but not the text inside, you can control it by applying the effect individually.

Doubleclick on the part you want to assign.