Gradient image with round corners

[Dude-Dastic]

[PDN newcomer]

Hello PDN gurus. I was browsing this site and noticed the little gray gradient image around the login form and though it cool. I've seen a similar thing on many other sites and desire to make one myself.

However, I'm wet behind the ears when it comes to Paint.NET (or any other image-editing program). Could someone teach me how to do it or point me towards a tutorial?

Thanks.

[Mike Ryan]

On a new layer, draw a filled rounded rectangle. Now pull out your Gradient tool and swtich it to :AlphaChannel: mode instead of :AllColorChannels: mode. Be sure it is also in Linear mode. Now, draw a gradient starting at the top all of the way down. Hope that helps!

[Dude-Dastic]

Thanks, Mike. I'll give it a try. But I was wondering, shouldn't this be created on a transparent layer (I often hear about transparency in designer forums)? If so, how can I accomplish that?

Thanks.

[JK-FlexShot]

Thanks, Mike. I'll give it a try. But I was wondering, shouldn't this be created on a transparent layer (I often hear about transparency in designer forums)? If so, how can I accomplish that?

Thanks.

There's several ways to do this, but the easiest way to do this gotta be this:

Simply cover the whole canvas with a selection tool, and press delete, and there you've got your transparent background 8)

[Myrddin]

A new layer is already fully transparent, no need for select/delete unless you know something already exists on it, say a pasted element or whatnot.

[Mike Ryan]

Yes, that is why I said on a new layer

[Dude-Dastic]

Hi all,

Thanks for the quick responses.

I managed to find the round rectangle tool. My problem is that when I draw the rectangle, it has no color. Have I done something wrong?

[LFC4EVER]

EDIT: Nevermind, i thought you couldn't see the rectangle being drawn.

[Mike Ryan]

Switch the mode to " :ShapeInterior: " instead of " :ShapeOutline: "

[Dude-Dastic]

Hey, hey ... I did it! I was able to do exactly what I wanted.

Now, do I need to save the image in a specific format in order to use it on the web? Should I crop the image (whatever that means) first? FYI, its 750 x 600.

Thanks.

[Mike Ryan]

It depends on the form.

And yes, to retain transparency I recommend saving in a .PNG format (or a .GIF format, but that is only limited to 256 colors)

[Dude-Dastic]

Superb! Thanks for all your help guys (and gals :wink: ). This wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.

I say, Paint.NET is a sweet program. And the forums are terrific. I think I'm going to like this photo creation/editing stuff.

Thanks again y'all.