A Field Guide to Gradient Design
Gradients are either beautiful or terrible. The difference is restraint. Here is how to choose stops, angles, and contrast that hold up.
A gradient is a promise: the page will move from one idea to another. Keep the promise by limiting yourself to two closely related stops and a single direction.
The classic mistake is rainbow thinking. Three or more hues read as noise, not atmosphere. Two hues, a short distance, and a 135 degree angle will carry you surprisingly far.
Always test contrast. A beautiful gradient that buries your text is a decoration, not a design. If body text struggles, add a scrim behind the article column.
Inkwell ships eight background sets — four solid, four gradient — and lets every author override them with a custom picker and live preview.
The two-stop rule is excellent advice. Our design system adopted it last quarter and the reviews got noticeably calmer.