Stop Illustrator blending from black to graywhen doing a black to color gradient - Adobe illustrator

Emily,

Your mentioning hot pink makes me suppose your File>Document Color Mode is RGB. But which black are you using? If you are just using the default black CMYK 0,0,0,100 = RGB 33,33,37, you will have a portion of G all the way. To get rid of that, you will have to use RGB 0,0,0 to get a true black, which is blacker than the default; if you want the whole thing a bit brighter, you may use an almost black with no G, somewhere between RGB 0,0,0 and RGB 33,0,37, possibly something reflecting the proportion between R and B in the hot pink.

Oh thanks very much Jacob. I'm actually using CMYK but did a search for true black and using C=50 Y=40 M=40 K=100 made it a much better blend. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!!

Why not blend from Hot Pink to Hot Pink + 100K? Adding Cyan when neither colour needs it won't help.

Thanks Scott. The black looks a bit too pink if I use that approach. I think the small amount of cyan makes it a richer black?

You are welcome, Emily.

Actually, the approach suggested by Scott may be used as a starting point for fine tuning the gradient:

Whereas Hot Pink + 100K may be too pink, a dilution of the Hot Pink + 100K, with a possible adjustment of the proportions, may be the right choice.

When you use CMYK 50,40,40,100, thus using all the CMY in about the same proportions, there will be an additional greyness, added to that created by the growing proportion of K itself.

Removing the K from the blacks in question will elucidate the differences.

Which CMYK values form your Hot Pink?

elucidate




Lighten up, Jabob.

Was it too obscure, Burt?

Obscure doesn't begin to shed light on it...