How do I use a CSS gradient?

Copy the generated CSS and paste it into your stylesheet as a background property: `background: linear-gradient(...)`. It works in all modern browsers.

What is a conic gradient?

A conic gradient rotates color stops around a center point (like a color wheel or pie chart), creating a sweep effect rather than a linear transition.

What is the difference between linear, radial and conic gradients?

A linear gradient blends along a straight line or angle, a radial gradient radiates outward from a center point in circles or ellipses, and a conic gradient sweeps around a center like a color wheel — useful for pie charts and angular effects.

How do I create a hard-edged color split?

Give two consecutive color stops the same position (e.g. red 50%, blue 50%). That hard stop produces a crisp line rather than a gradient, handy for stripes, duotone blocks and faux-solid sections.

Are CSS gradients better than image files?

Usually yes for solid color blends. Gradients are vector — infinitely scalable, always crisp, and add zero download weight — whereas an image adds bytes and can look soft when scaled. Use images only for photographic or highly complex textures.

How can I animate a gradient smoothly?

Avoid animating the color stops, which is CPU-heavy. Instead, define an oversized gradient and animate its background-position — the GPU handles that almost for free, giving smooth motion without jank.

Why does my gradient look banded?

Banding appears when a subtle blend spans many pixels with limited color steps, especially on 8-bit displays. Adding intermediate color stops, a touch of noise or texture, or using a wider color space reduces the visible stripes.

CSS Gradient Generator

How to use CSS Gradient Generator

Create multi-stop CSS gradients with a visual editor — drag stops, adjust colors, and instantly preview on sample UI elements. Export clean CSS ready to paste into your stylesheet, or download a PNG swatch. Includes preset gradient packs (sunset, ocean, neon, pastel, monochrome) for quick inspiration.

Choose a preset gradient or start from scratch by clicking "New Gradient".
Click the gradient track to add color stops; drag to reposition them.
Double-click a stop to edit its color using the full color picker.
Switch between linear, radial, and conic modes.
Copy the CSS output or download a 1×100px PNG swatch for use in design tools.

Your data never leaves your device — 100% private processing.

Building brand-aligned gradient systems

Design systems increasingly include gradient tokens alongside flat color tokens. A brand gradient system typically defines 3–5 gradients: a primary (brand colors), a neutral (grey scale), a success (green tones), a warning (amber tones), and an error (red tones). Keeping gradients on the same hue axis as flat brand colors ensures visual consistency. For dark mode, the same gradient at reduced opacity or with adjusted lightness stops maintains brand identity without the harshness of full-saturation gradients on dark backgrounds.

Performance considerations for CSS gradients

CSS gradients are resolution-independent (vector) and cost nothing to scale — they are always sharper than raster images and add zero bytes to page weight. They are rendered by the GPU and do not trigger layout or paint if used as background-image on elements with fixed size. Avoid animating gradient color stops using CSS transitions or keyframes — this is CPU-intensive and can degrade performance. Instead, animate the background-position on a larger static gradient for smooth movement at near-zero GPU cost.

Worked examples

Two-stop linear gradient

Inputs: red 0%, blue 100% at 90deg

Result: linear-gradient(90deg, red 0%, blue 100%)

Hard-edged split

Inputs: red 50%, blue 50%

Result: linear-gradient(red 50%, blue 50%) — crisp center line

Glossary

Gradient token: A named CSS custom property containing a gradient value, part of a design token system.
Hard stop: A gradient color stop where the position of two consecutive stops is identical, creating a sharp line instead of a blend.
Midpoint: An optional control point between two color stops that shifts where the midpoint of the blend occurs.
Background-position animation: A GPU-efficient trick for animated gradients: define a large gradient and animate the background-position property.

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CSS Gradient Generator

How to use CSS Gradient Generator

Building brand-aligned gradient systems

Performance considerations for CSS gradients

Worked examples

Glossary

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why use CSS Gradient Generator?

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