Design beautiful CSS gradients visually without memorizing syntax. Drag color stops along a gradient bar, adjust angles with a circular slider, switch between linear and radial modes, browse curated presets for inspiration, and copy production-ready CSS in one click. A tool designers and developers reach for every day.
Build Prompt
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Build a single-page CSS Gradient Generator as a static HTML file with embedded CSS and JavaScript. No frameworks or dependencies.
LAYOUT:
- Dark theme (background #0d1117, text #c9d1d9)
- Top section: large gradient preview swatch (400px tall, full width, rounded corners 16px)
- Below the preview: gradient controls panel
- Below controls: CSS output box
- Below output: presets gallery
- Header with title "CSS Gradient Generator" and subtitle "Design, preview, and copy CSS gradients visually"
GRADIENT PREVIEW:
- Large div showing the live gradient, filling 100% width and 400px height
- Checkerboard pattern behind it (visible through transparent colors)
- Small label in corner showing gradient type ("Linear" or "Radial")
GRADIENT TYPE TOGGLE:
- Two buttons: "Linear" and "Radial" (pill-style toggle, active state in blue)
- Switching type immediately updates the preview and shows relevant controls
LINEAR GRADIENT CONTROLS:
- Angle control: circular dial (200px diameter) that the user can click/drag to set angle (0-360 degrees)
- Current angle displayed in the center of the dial as "180deg"
- Quick angle buttons: 0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, 315 degrees
- The dial has a line from center to edge showing direction
RADIAL GRADIENT CONTROLS:
- Shape toggle: "circle" or "ellipse" pills
- Position picker: 300x200px grid representing the element area
- Click anywhere on the grid to set the gradient center position
- Show crosshair at the current position
- Quick position buttons: center, top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right
- Size keyword dropdown: closest-side, closest-corner, farthest-side, farthest-corner
COLOR STOPS BAR:
- Horizontal bar (full width, 40px tall) showing the current gradient
- Draggable color stop handles (small triangles/circles) on the bar
- Click the bar to add a new color stop at that position
- Click a stop handle to select it, showing a color picker and position input
- Right-click or X button on a stop to remove it (minimum 2 stops required)
- Each stop has:
- Native color picker input (type="color")
- Opacity slider (0-100%)
- Position percentage input (0-100%)
- Default starts with two stops: #667eea at 0% and #764ba2 at 100%
CSS OUTPUT:
- Read-only code box with monospace font showing the generated CSS
- Three lines of output:
1. Standard: background: linear-gradient(180deg, #667eea 0%, #764ba2 100%);
2. Webkit: background: -webkit-linear-gradient(180deg, #667eea 0%, #764ba2 100%);
3. Fallback: background-color: #667eea;
- Copy CSS button that copies all three lines
- Button shows "Copied!" with green background for 2 seconds
PRESETS GALLERY:
- Grid of 16 preset gradients displayed as small swatches (100x80px each)
- 4 columns on desktop, 2 on mobile
- Each swatch is clickable — loads that gradient into the editor
- Preset names below each swatch
- Include popular gradients:
- "Sunset" (#f093fb → #f5576c)
- "Ocean" (#4facfe → #00f2fe)
- "Forest" (#43e97b → #38f9d7)
- "Peach" (#ffecd2 → #fcb69f)
- "Night Sky" (#0c3483 → #a2b6df → #6b76ff)
- "Aurora" (#00d2ff → #3a7bd5)
- "Candy" (#fc5c7d → #6a82fb)
- "Mint" (#00b09b → #96c93d)
- "Lavender" (#a18cd1 → #fbc2eb)
- "Fire" (#f83600 → #f9d423)
- "Aqua" (#13547a → #80d0c7)
- "Purple Rain" (#7f00ff → #e100ff)
- "Warm Flame" (#ff9a9e → #fad0c4 → #fad0c4)
- "Deep Blue" (#e0c3fc → #8ec5fc)
- "Plum" (#cc2b5e → #753a88)
- "Fresh" (#667eea → #764ba2)
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:
- Ctrl+C when output is focused: copy CSS
- Delete: remove selected color stop
- L: switch to linear
- R: switch to radial
Make it responsive: on mobile, preview shrinks to 250px height, angle dial shrinks to 150px, preset grid becomes 2 columns. Controls stack vertically.
Make It Yours
Conic Gradients
Add support for conic-gradient() with a center position picker and angle offset control for pie-chart-style effects.
Gradient Extraction
Allow users to upload an image and auto-extract a gradient from its dominant colors using canvas pixel sampling.
CSS Animation
Generate animated gradients with keyframes that shift color stops or angle over time, with speed and direction controls.
Tailwind Output
Add a toggle to output Tailwind CSS classes instead of raw CSS, using from-/via-/to- utility classes.
Share as Image
Add a "Download as PNG" button that renders the gradient swatch to a canvas and exports it for social sharing.
Gradient Mesh
Build an advanced mode with layered gradients that overlap to create mesh-gradient effects using multiple backgrounds.
SEO Tips
Target "css gradient generator" as the primary keyword and "css gradient maker", "gradient background generator", "linear gradient tool" as secondary terms.
Create a "CSS Gradient Gallery" page with 100+ curated gradients, each with a name, CSS code, and preview. Gallery pages attract backlinks naturally.
Publish a comprehensive guide titled "The Complete Guide to CSS Gradients (linear, radial, conic)" with interactive examples linking to your tool.
Add Open Graph meta images that show a preview of a gradient, so social shares look visually appealing and drive clicks.
Build individual pages for each preset gradient with unique titles like "Sunset CSS Gradient — Free Code" to capture niche search queries.
Monetization Ideas
Sell a premium gradient pack with 500+ handpicked gradients organized by mood (warm, cool, pastel, vibrant, dark) for a one-time $9 purchase.
Offer a Figma plugin version that lets designers apply gradients directly to layers, priced at $5/month or $29 lifetime.
Create a gradient API that returns random or themed gradients as JSON, charging $5/month for 50,000 requests for use in generative design tools.
Add sponsored gradient collections where design tool companies (Figma, Sketch, Framer) curate themed palettes with attribution.