What happened to gradients in CMYK mode?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
December 31, 2024
2 replies
623 views

Hi everyone and happy new year,

since a few weeks I noticed my gradients show some heavy banding. After some testing I realized that this seems to only happen in the CMYK mode (which I use all the time, because I create book covers). Was there any update that made this happen? I can find only small changes in the latest release notes.

I am using the current latest version of Photoshop, 26.2.0. CMYK mode, 16-bit and every gradient looks awful like this one:

I already know that some best practices in this case are adding noise (which is not always fitting the style I want) or using something like Gaussian Blur, but I didn't find that to be helpful, it sometimes even makes it worse.

Helpful for any advice with this.

Best,

Nadine

Windows

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer D Fosse

Banding is caused by insufficient bit depth.

If the file is 16 bits per channel, any banding you see is in your display system.

Aside from some expensive 10 bit capable desktop monitors, all displays are 8 bit, most office and gaming screens 6 bit + dithering (rapid flashing).

Banding is cumulative and several factors can contribute (calibration tables, bad monitor profile, panel defects etc.)

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

@Nadine M.

Ensure that the gradient took has "dither" checked.

Try creating the gradient in RGB and then converting to CMYK.

D Fosse

Correct answer

Community Expert

Banding is caused by insufficient bit depth.

If the file is 16 bits per channel, any banding you see is in your display system.

Aside from some expensive 10 bit capable desktop monitors, all displays are 8 bit, most office and gaming screens 6 bit + dithering (rapid flashing).

Banding is cumulative and several factors can contribute (calibration tables, bad monitor profile, panel defects etc.)

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Banding is caused by insufficient bit depth.

If the file is 16 bits per channel, any banding you see is in your display system.

Aside from some expensive 10 bit capable desktop monitors, all displays are 8 bit, most office and gaming screens 6 bit + dithering (rapid flashing).

Banding is cumulative and several factors can contribute (calibration tables, bad monitor profile, panel defects etc.)

By @D Fosse

I think that this is the correct answer.

When I examine the visible bands in the image vs. what the info panel reports, there are no major tonal jumps/breaks. The gradient values are "smooth" as expected, but the display isn't. The same file on my laptop display has different banding than on my external monitor.

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