Choppy gradients in photoshop.... help!

[anim8or]

Hi all,

I am trying to use a gradient in photoshop and im getting a really choppy result, i dont remember ever getting such a choppy gradient before is there any way to reduce the choppyness (sorry for the overuse of choppy, its the only way i can describe the problem )

Here is a sample of what i mean...

Is there any way to make it smoother...?

PS seeing the gradient on here doesn't do justice to the 'choppyness' hopefully you will get what i mean?

 

[one3]

One way to 'fix' it up a bit is to apply a very light "Noise" filter to it. It tends to remove the banding (although you will gain a bit of a dotted effect). Try something very light like a setting of 1.0

 

[anim8or]

thanks this helps alot, still not perfect..... will i ever get the perfect gradient?

 

[jdl8422]

what resolution do you have it in? and what did you save it as? I know gradients dont work too well with GIFs.

 

[gre9del]

what resolution do you have it in? and what did you save it as? I know gradients dont work too well with GIFs.

I second that, try to work with a true 8 bit file, like a Jpeg or tif and make sure you're working at 200ppi + at your output size. Otherwise, apply a 2-3 pixel gaussian blur after you use the gradient tool, that should ease the transitions and any "choppiness" you may see.

 

[stainlessliquid]

Get a better monitor/make sure you are using 32bit color? The gradient is perfectly smooth on my screen.

 

[anim8or]

In response to all of the above...

Its a PSD, working at 300dpi and Im using two 23" Apple Cinema Displays both less than a year old!

Thanks for the advice.

I tried the gaussian blur in combination with a little noise and it did the trick,

The strange thing is that working on small resolution files i wasnt getting any banding/choppyness so this is why i was thrown off!

Cheers all anyway.

 

[design-is]

Its because there are only a certain number of steps between colours in the eyes of Photoshop. The larger you make the dimensions of the file (dpi or physical dimensions) the more spread out these steps will be and the more noticeable the divisions. The only way to make these divisions less noticeable is to mess them up a little like you have with the blurring and the noise.