Gradient Banding
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- eargizzle
Any tips on how to avoid gradient banding? Does 32 bit RGB color mode reduce that effect? Any downsides/compatibility issues when using 32bit color mode?
- DoTheMacarena0
What app?
Short answer? Yes. Try 16bit first, though. Also introducing a very small amount of noise to the gradient with help to dither, and thereby reduce banding.
- *will helpDoTheMacarena
- +1 on adding noise. sounds like it shouldn't work but it actually doesTungsten
- < noise.Christa
- eargizzle0
Photoshop
- erikjonsson0
make your gradients in 16bit lab. Then pull them over. make shorter spans etc. quick dirty fix is to put 2% noise on it though.
- monospaced0
It might be your insufficient 6-bit display. Just sayin'
- forbidden dance up there is probably right, thoughmonospaced
- mydo0
are you getting the problem when saving to web? or just in general?
- iron_condor0
wait... what's the diff between 8, 16, and 32-bit color schemes in PS?
do they matter when saving images for web or just for print?
- graphiknature0
If it's for web go to the filters and add some noise.
- monNom0
banding in print: make your gradients in raster, add a bit of noise
banding in PS: probably an artifact of your profile and monitor colour settings not playing nice together. A hardware colour calibrator can help here. Basically you want to ensure that your monitor is very close to accurate before the profile is added so there aren't big jumps and gaps.
- PIZZA0
"Does 32 bit RGB color mode reduce that effect"
Nope, dither it or make it using something with a better gradient algorithm. You might just have to use higher values,if it's web graphics lots of people are trying to do very dark black gradients these days and there just isn't enough greys to get a smooth gradient without dither."wait... what's the diff between 8, 16, and 32-bit color schemes in PS?"
when working in higher bits your colour doesn't lose information when it's blown out.
So in 32bit if you up the exposure and totally white out an image the data won't just be all 255,255,255 it will be decimals, so you could then add another adjustment later and bring the image back down to visible levels again. Only really something to worry about for 3D artists or photographers, not really relevant for web graphics.
- maikel0
the best way to avoid banding when using gradients is not using gradients at all...