Viewport Background & Horizon Presets

What sits behind the model in the viewport is set in the Viewport Background accordion on the Interface tab of the Settings window (Edit > Interface Settings, Alt+F10). View > View Gradient Background and View > View Static Background both jump straight to it. You can show a flat colour, a two-part gradient, or a fixed image — and save gradients you like as Horizon presets.

The colour and gradient controls and the Horizon preset buttons are not available in Free; the Static Background Image section is available in every edition.

Colour and gradient

The accordion is laid out in two columns: General on the left and Gradient Stops on the right. Each colour has a small reset button beside its swatch.

Control	What it does
Background Color	The flat background colour, used whenever Use Gradient is off.
Use Gradient	Draws a gradient behind the mesh instead of the flat Background Color. Turns off Enable Static Background — the two can't be active at once. If a Horizon preset is marked as default, turning this on applies it.
Fixed Gradient	On: a plain screen gradient split at screen-centre that never moves. Off: a sky where Zenith is straight up and Nadir straight down, so the split tracks the camera's pitch as you orbit.

Gradient Stops

The gradient is really two gradients meeting at a horizon split: Nadir blends up to Horizon - below the split, and Horizon + blends up to Zenith above it. The stops are greyed out until Use Gradient is on.

Stop	What it does
Zenith	The colour at the top.
Horizon +	Upper side of the horizon split — blends up toward Zenith.
Horizon -	Lower side of the horizon split — blends down toward Nadir.
Nadir	The colour at the bottom.

Saving a Horizon preset

Save Preset..., below the colour grid, saves the four gradient colours and the Fixed Gradient setting to a named .hrz file you can reload later. Type a name in the Preset name: prompt; the line beneath it shows the file name it Saves as, or Replaces if a preset of that name already exists. Press Save (or Enter), or Cancel.

A preset does not store whether Use Gradient is on — that stays a viewport toggle, separate from any particular look.

The Horizon Presets browser

Load Preset... opens the Horizon Presets window and closes Settings so the browser is in front. You can also open it at any time from Window > Horizon Presets. It shows the folder the presets live in, then one swatch per saved preset, drawn from its own colours, with its name underneath.

Control	What it does
A preset's swatch	Click to apply that preset and turn on Use Gradient (which turns off the static background). Click the same swatch again to turn Use Gradient off.
Mark Default	Marks the preset as the default — applied automatically whenever Use Gradient is turned on. The marked preset's button reads Default and is highlighted; click it again to unmark.

With no presets saved yet, the window says so and points you to Save Preset....

Static Background Image

Below the gradient controls, Static Background Image puts a flat image behind the mesh. It doesn't move with the camera and doesn't affect lighting, Image Based Lighting or Post Processing, and it works in both views. A grey line shows Background image: loaded or Background image: none loaded.

Control	What it does
Enable Static Background	Shows the favourite image behind the mesh. Turns off Use Gradient — the two can't be active at once. If no favourite is set, a warning says nothing will show until you load one and mark it.
Load Static Image...	Opens a file picker for a background image.
Mark as Favorite	Sets the loaded image as the favourite. Only one can be marked; marking a new one replaces it. It is kept as a copy, so it survives the original file being moved or deleted. Greyed out until an image is loaded, or if it is already the favourite.
Favorite (Default)	Shows the favourite's thumbnail and file name (hover it for the image size). The favourite is what Enable Static Background shows. Remove clears it.