How to make a blocky gradient

Gimp's Gradient Editor can be intimidating. Im here to change that.

In this tutorial i will show you how to make a blocky gradient that has lots of uses.

Make sure your colours go from black to white.


Click 'Create New Gradient' at the bottom of the Gradient Tab.

A window will pop up. You can resize this window to make it larger.

Give the gradient a name ('8 Bar') and save it.

Go inside the right-click menu and 'Replicate Segment' by 2.

Select only the left part of the gradient by clicking inside the bar where the little triangles are located.

Change the colour of the segment to black by changing the 'Right Endpoint's Colour'.

Next select the right segment and change it to white.

Now select both segments by holding Shift and replicate again. 

We want eight bars, so we have to replicate by four.

And thats the whole procedure. You can exit the gradient editor - it automatically saves.

You should make yourself an arsenal of blocky gradients: 8, 10, 12, 24 and 32 bars are good for a start !

I will show you two uses in the next tutorial.