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Asyouwere Medewerker-1
Inspiring
Aug 16, 2022 12:00 PM UTC
Question

Horrible gradient banding

This issue has been posted before here but since noone responded here it is again:

Out of nowhere I started to get horrible banding on gradients in Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator, even when exporting.

Even the little gradient icons are less banded.

I'm on an M1 2022 Macbook Pro 16". 

I updated everything, no difference.

I opened in rosetta and normally, no difference.

 

Anyone know what's happening? Is it a bug?

I added some screenshots.

21 replies

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
NB, colourmanagementCommunity Expert
Community Expert
Aug 17, 2022 4:34 PM UTC

How does it look onscreen when viewed at 100% 

 

 

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

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Asyouwere Medewerker-1Author
Inspiring
Aug 17, 2022 8:03 AM UTC

Thanks all for replying. 16 bit helped just a bit, I'm still getting banding in Illustrator and it's still not like I'm used to but I'm starting question my entire existence atm cause maybe it was always like this and I was living a lie, idk. It's mainly with dark gradients when using transparancy. It just makes a black band, then a very steep gradient of bands, not "gradual" at all as you can see in the linked image.

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marliton
Community Expert
marlitonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
Aug 16, 2022 5:19 PM UTC

Hi. Does that happen if you export to any format? What about jpg?

 

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Marlon Ceballos
    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    Aug 16, 2022 5:07 PM UTC

    IF you see banding in high-bit (16-bit) images, zoomed at 1:1 (100%), the banding is due to the display path, not the data in your document. 

    Download this test document, zoom in at 100%: see banding there? If so, it's the display path:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/s14f4w7dq85r7oo/10-bit-test-ramp.zip?dl=0

     

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    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
      Asyouwere Medewerker-1Author
      Inspiring
      Aug 17, 2022 7:50 AM UTC

      Funny enough I did not see any banding when I opened it in Photoshop but I did see terrible banding in the dropbox preview.

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      TheDigitalDog
      TheDigitalDog
      Inspiring
      Aug 17, 2022 4:41 PM UTC
      @Asyouwere Medewerker-1 wrote:

      Funny enough I did not see any banding when I opened it in Photoshop but I did see terrible banding in the dropbox preview.

      Forget Dropbox, what matters is Photoshop or other applications that fully support a high-bit display path. The application (OS, video card, display) ALL play a role. 

      So export this and view wherever you viewed the images you reported; do you see banding at 100%? 

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      Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
      Earth Oliver
      Earth Oliver
      Legend
      Aug 16, 2022 3:03 PM UTC

      you're applying the grad to a mask and masks are always 8 bit and have always banded like crazy. Not a bug and has needed to be improved for decades.

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        D Fosse
        Community Expert
        D FosseCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        Aug 16, 2022 5:27 PM UTC

        Masks aren't 8 bit, but selections are. A mask has the same bit depth as the document. Painting and gradients in a mask are always full bit depth.

         

        You may need to watch this for masks made from selections, such as a standard luminance mask. The safe way to do this is to copy a full layer into the mask. A bit cumbersome, but can be actioned.

         

        OTOH, I've never noticed any banding from a standard ctrl+alt+2 luminance mask. It would take an absolutely extreme adjustment to get banding from that, and in that case the file probably has deeper problems.

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          TheDigitalDog
          TheDigitalDog
          Inspiring
          Aug 16, 2022 5:38 PM UTC
          @D Fosse wrote:

          Masks aren't 8 bit, but selections are. A mask has the same bit depth as the document. Painting and gradients in a mask are always full bit depth.

           

          Indeed and super easy to test:

          Make a new document in 16-bit

          Make a selection. Select>Save Selection; ask for a NEW document.

          New Doc is in the same bit depth, Untagged Multichannel.

          Masks are not always 8-bit. 

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          Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
            c.pfaffenbichler
            Community Expert
            c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            Aug 16, 2022 12:34 PM UTC

            Try working in 16bit. 

             

            Could you please post a screenshot of the Gradient on white taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Channels, Options Bar, …) visible? 

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              Asyouwere Medewerker-1Author
              Inspiring
              Aug 16, 2022 12:38 PM UTC

              Thanks for responding.

              Here it is, there's less banding on white but still way too much.

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              Asyouwere Medewerker-1Author
              Inspiring
              Aug 16, 2022 12:40 PM UTC

              In 16 bit there's less banding until I put transparancy. It all goes to hell.

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              Asyouwere Medewerker-1Author
              Inspiring
              Aug 16, 2022 12:05 PM UTC

              Also, I've tried both on native screen and external screen.
              The gradient tool has been acting strange anyway, where sliding the midpoint didn't do anything for example.

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