The Gradients dialog
The Gradients dialog is used to select a gradient -- a set of colors arranged in a linear scale -- for use with the Blend tool and numerous other operations. It also gives you access to several functions for manipulating gradients. You can select a gradient by clicking on it in the list: it will then be shown in the Brush/Pattern/Gradient area of the Toolbox. A few dozen nice gradients come pre-installed with GIMP. You can create more using the Gradient Editor. General information about gradients and how they are used in GIMP can be found in the Gradients section.
The Gradients dialog is a dockable dialog; see the section on Dialogs and Docking for help on manipulating it. It can be activated in several ways:
From the Toolbox menu:
-> -> .From the Toolbox menu:
-> -> -> . This gives you a dock containing three dialogs, with the Gradients dialog one of them.From the Toolbox, by clicking on the current gradient in the Brush/Pattern/Gradient area.
From an image menu:
-> .From the Tab menu in any dockable dialog:
-> .In the Tab menu, you can choose between
and . In Grid mode, the gradients are laid out in a rectangular array. They look quite dazzling when viewed this way, but it is not very easy to pick the one you want, because of visual interference from the neighboring ones. In List mode, the more usable default, the gradients are lined up vertically, with each row showing the tool name, tool icon, and an "eye" icon if the tool is currently visible in the Toolbox.