Creating Custom Transparent Gradients in Canva_ Beginner's Tutorial [2023]

After watching this tutorial, you'll be able to create custom gradients and, most importantly

gradients that fade to transparency. I'll also give you five tips on how to use these gradients creatively on your designs so you

can create visuals like this. Gradients are pretty cool to spice up your creations and make them stand out from the crowd

And the coolest thing is that every single step that I'm going to show you in this video

you can follow it and create it completely. free in Canva. So if you guys are ready for this tutorial, let's go to my computer

Let me start by the basics. I'm going to show you how to create custom gradients

and I'm going to show you as well the different style of gradients that you can create in Canva

If you're here to learn how to create gradients fading to transparency, I'm going to show you

how to do that in tip number three, so stay watching. Here I am in Canva.com. You're going to

create any kind of Canva document. I'm going to go for a social media. I love to create

Instagram posts. So let's go for this option right here. I'm going to click on create blank

So Canva takes me directly to the editor. We have a blank page on our design and I would like to start

by creating a gradient in this background. So by having the background selected, I'm going to click on my

white page and then click on this square right here that says background color. This is going to open

the color window and from here we are going to select this plus icon right here. This will open this

little window that give us access to the color settings. At the moment we are under the tab that's

called solid color but next to it we have another tab called gradient. We're going to click here

From here we will be able to create our custom. gradients. Pay attention to this page because my gradient is being applied to the background of this design

So how do we add our own colors to this gradient? We have here two options and we can click on any of

these squares to change the colors. So I want to change this white for this light pink right here

So I can either go and check the hex code. You will see that when I hover on this color

you will have the hex code in here and then we go to the plus icon we go to the gradient tab click on the color

that you want to change and then you can enter the hex code from here you can also play around with

these settings to find a color yourself or you can use the color picker to select any color inside your screen

i'm going to go for this blue right here and for the second color i'm going to go for the

light shade of my blue. Once you have your colors in here you can select from five different

gradient styles. So we have these three styles that are linear gradients and these two that are

circular gradients. So you can click on any of these thumbnails to see which gradient style you prefer

There is something cool here that I found a couple of days ago and I really love and it is that

you can change the direction of your gradients by just switching these colors

And you can do it by dragging the color to the position where you want

So as you can see, when I moved this light shade to the left, we can see the color now on the left

And I'm going to move this one now. So pay attention to the sheet on the middle of the screen

And as simple as that, you can change the direction on your gradient

I'm going to show you the same trick with this circular gradient. So you can see it again

And like this, you can have different styles. You can also add more than just two colors

So by clicking on this plus icon, you can add another color and play around with the style of your gradient

So you can move the colors around and see if you can get a really cool combination or a really cool styling here

Tip number one on how to use these gradients on your designs is by adding them on the background So as you can see you can simply select the background on your design and then add the gradient And this can spice your design up because you can go from a flat design to something that can really stand out from the crowd

Tip number two on how to use these gradients in Canva is by using them inside shapes

If you didn't know, we can now, instead of just selecting one color for a simple shape

we can add gradients to them. So let me add a shape by clicking on elements

Then I'm going to go to lines and shapes, see all. You can select any shape that you see in here

I'm going to go for a hard shape. And then by going to color, I can follow the same process

So I can go to the plus icon, go to gradient, and then

As you can see, I already have a gradient in my heart

I can select any of these different styles. I'm going to go for this one and play around with the colors

I think this one is already looking great. And the cool tip in here is not only that you can add gradients to shapes

but that you can change the shape of your element with just one click

So let's say that I have this heart right here, but I'm thinking that maybe this one

won't work really well with my design. Instead of going to elements and having to find another shape

and add the gradient and you know like do all of these steps, I can simply go to the toolbar on top

select shape and select the shape that I want. So let's say that this time I want to use this shape right here

I just need to click one time and with just one click, I change my heart to this shape

You can click on any other shapes to play around and see which one looks better on your design

This feature is relatively new in Canva and I actually tend to forget that this button is here

That's why I thought it would be nice to remind you if you already knew about this button that this option is available in Canva

And also for those of you who didn't know that this existed in Canva, let me know in the comments

I would love to know that you guys are learning something new here today

Radiants can help guide the viewer's eye by creating a sense of flow or movement

and I would say that we can create this especially with the gradients that fade to transparency

So now we are going to see how to do that. I'm going to go to uploads because I have a photo that I think is going to work really well

with this tip. So let me go here, this is the photo that I want to use, I just drag it to the background

and now I'm going to add a gradient on top of my photo to help guide the viewer's eye into our

lovely faces. I think this photo is really great but we have a lot of elements on the surroundings

so I want to bring the attention to the middle of this image. Go to elements and let's bring a square

shape. We are already inside line and shapes. So that's why we can see all these elements right here

So by clicking on the shape, you will bring it inside the design. If you are not inside line and

shapes, you will see something like this and you just need to click on this square to bring it to the

design. Let me close this tab. We don't need it anymore. And now let's add a gradient with

transparency to this square. Let's go to the color section. Click on the plus

icon go to gradient and now let's add colors to our gradients. This time I think I'm going to go for a

pink and then a yellow and we need a transparent color or transparency into our gradient. So I'm going to

bring another color to this gradient by clicking on this plus icon and this time I'm going to play

around with this slider to make my color transparent. So by moving this slider to the left

you will see that my gradient has some transparency on this color that we have right here I going to change the position of this color so you can see clearly where the transparency is happening

So at the moment I moved my transparent color to the left and you can see it on the gradient here in the middle

I'm using the style number four, the circular gradient and let me stretch my shape and see

if this transparency is working. I'm gonna go again and keep adjusting my gradient

so I can see a little bit more of our faces. So I think I'm gonna add even more transparency

to the middle of this gradient and I can do it by adding another color

And this time I'm gonna move the slider all the way to the left

until we see 0% of the color and move this transparent square or transparent color

all the way to the left. Now I can see more of our faces because we have more transparency going on in the middle of this gradient

I can keep playing around with the transparency so we can see more of our faces but we still see a little glow of the color

I'm going to also add more transparency to this pink right here

And I think I have achieved something pretty interesting in here. As you can see in this example, a simple gradient can guide your

viewer eye to a section of the design. In this case, it will be the middle of the image

This can also help you create a more branded visual or a branded photo in this case

because you can add the colors of your brand in this gradient. Something to have into consideration

in case that you want to change the photo that you are using on this design is that you need

to move your gradients in order to change the photos. So in this case, let's

say that I want to change the photo for this one. I need to move my gradient to the side

bring the photo to my design and then move again my gradient. Here, of course, the style of the

gradient is not working for this particular photo, so you will go again to color, go to the gradient

option and change the style of your gradient. The fourth tip on how to use gradients on your design

especially gradients with transparency is by using them behind text. Let's take this as an example

I have a text on my photo at the bottom of the photo

but it's kind of difficult to spot, kind of difficult to read

because we have a lot of elements in the photo. So we're going to use these gradients with transparency

in order to make the text easy to read. I'm going to bring a square shape to my design by pressing the key R

And now let's add a little bit of a bit of a little bit of a little bit of a. And now let's add a gradient to this shape. I'm going to go to color. We already know the steps

Go to the plus icon. Gradient. I'm going to change the colors and add one with transparency

I have three colors right here. I have a solid color. This one has a 100% of color

The second one is 53. You can leave it to 50 if you want. And then the last one is at zero

I'm going to change the style because I want to have more of a solid color next to the text

and then the rest of the image can be more transparent. So I want a gradient that is going from one corner to the other like this one

And then I'm going to rotate my shape so we can see more of the solid color on this corner

Now I'm going to stretch my shape. Now we need to bring the text in front of our

gradient let's go to position let's go to layers this time so we can see clearly what we are doing

in here we have the photo at the bottom we have the text in the middle of the photo and the gradient

and I need to bring the gradient behind my text so I'm going to bring this one behind and like this

I can make my text appear in front of the gradient now by having the gradient selected I'm going to go to

to the color option again and I gonna see if I can play around a little bit more with this transparency so we can see a little bit more of the photo So I think I can play a little bit more with the second color

So maybe let's bring the transparency to 30. I think this is already looking good

Of course, this will depend on what you need to create. You can play around with the transparencies

as I told you, if you want to have a corner that is completely, completely transparent

and not have any shade of pink on this area, you can bring another transparent background

and as you can see, you have more transparency on the gradient

Or if you want to have more of the color happening on the image

bring more color to the second color. So instead of 30, you can go up to 80 or more

It depends on what you need. If you are into posting, creative photos, this tip is for you. Let me show you how to add depth and dimension to your

designs using these gradients. Let's go to elements and this time we are going to photos, select

see all. I'm going to scroll down to find a photo that I like. You can select any photo right here

or you can also select a photo of your own. If you are using a photo of your own, you will need to

go to uploads. This is the photo that I'm going to use today. So I'll

I'll bring it to the background of my design and now let me add the photo one more time

Let's go back and this time we are going down to select a frame

We're going to bring this photo inside the frame so by dragging the photo and hovering on top of the frame

you will bring the photo inside the frame. Now we're going to go to shapes inside elements

I'm going to select the circular shape this time. I'm going to increase the size of

of this circular shape bring it to this corner and now I'm going to add a gradient

Let's go to color the plus icon gradient and this time I'm going to select colors available

in this photo for the gradient. So let's go to the first color. I'm using the color picker

I'm going to use the color that we see in the background behind the woman

And then for the second color I'm going to use a purple

or a pink or magenta. I don't know which name do you want to give to this color

but I would say magenta. Okay, there you go. Now I'm going to add transparency to the gray color

and I think I'm going to add one more transparent color to this gradient

and put it all the way to the left. Now I'm going to change this style for the first style that we see here on the left

I'm going to position my circle. somewhere here. And I'm going to duplicate it and bring the other circular shape on this corner

I'm going to rotate the circular shape until we see just a little section of our shaping here

and then the shape will fade into transparency. I'm going to bring it more to this corner

And now to add even more depth to this design, I'm going to select the photo in the background

Go to edit photo. I'm going to add the black. effect go back go to adjust and reduce the brightness on the photo and this will be the final result of this tip of adding dimension or depth to your designs using gradients so we went from a simple flat photo like this one to something more creative and with more dimension as this one now let me know which of these five design tips you are going to be using on your own designs and why if you

enjoyed this tutorial and you want to keep learning tips on content creation, I have a great

tutorial for you. With this video you'll see how easy it is to edit photos inside Canva using

AI. Also if you need to create content for Instagram, I do suggest you follow my Canva profile

I have a lot of templates available for both Canva Free and Canva Pro. So go and check out my profile

I'm going to leave the link in here. I guess this is it for today. I really hope that you enjoyed this video

and hope to see you in the next one. Bye