Creating a Mesh Gradient¶

This tool is especially useful for those who want to create photorealistic designs, but it also has its uses for everyone who wants to create complex gradients in a unmarried object.

To use a mesh gradient to an object, select the object.

Now yous accept two options:

Choice 1:
Activate the Mesh Gradient tool in the tool bar. Use it to click and drag on the object.
Option 2:
Open the Fill and Stroke dialog. There, select the Mesh Gradient mode Mesh Gradient Paint icon.

Now, the mesh gradient will be displayed straight on the object. It has some unlike kinds of nodes:

  • grey diamond-shaped nodes for assigning colors
  • white round (or arrow-shaped) handles for shaping the mesh

Note

You will only be able to encounter and modify these nodes when you use the Mesh Gradient tool.

In the tool's tool controls bar, note the fields labelled Rows and Columns. More than rows or columns add more than nodes that can each have a separate colour. This mode, an object tin can be painted in a multitude of colors. New meshes will have the set number of rows or columns.

To add more rows or columns to an existing gradient, double-click on the vertical or horizontal mesh lines.

To employ a color:

  1. select a greyness node
  2. select the color of your choice.

Tip

You can use the dropper icon Color Picker icon at the lesser of the Make full and Stroke dialog to more apace apply colors that yous already use in your drawing.

Just like the normal gradients, mesh gradients can exist shared between objects, when both objects use a gradient with the same name (e.g. mygradient1234). Select the slope in the Mesh Fill listing in theFill and Stroke dialog to reuse it on a different object.

Cloud with mesh gradient

This cloud consists of 10 dissimilar colors. Each color has been applied to one of the grey diamond-shaped nodes. The shape of the mesh has been modified to better fit the shape of the cloud.

Landscape with mesh gradients

A landscape with mesh gradients

Same landscape without mesh gradients

The same landscape without mesh gradients