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M
mal25
Known Participant
February 6, 2020
Question

Gradient tool not working as expected

  • February 6, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 3231 views

Good Morning,

I am on a W 10, 64 bit system with the latest 2020 version 21.0.1 of PS.  I had recently noticed that I had a problem with my gradient tool when I made a black to white gradient I saw bands of color through the half tones.  This usually indcates I need to reprofile my monitor LOL  however this looked different, the eyedroper showed that there were fluctuations off the neutral by one or two points, I have never seen this before.  I am using the gradient today and I was wondering if I could laydown a gradient and then continue manipulating it after the fact, so I started watching videos on the gradient tool.  The tutorial started by demonstrating drag and drop a gradient from the Gradient Editor to a background layer, this does not work, not only to a background layer but any layer.  I can click and drag on the canvas and it works just fine (except for the bands of color).  Any Ideas on either problem would be appreciated.

Thanks

Chris   

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1 reply

nikunj.m
Community Manager
nikunj.mCommunity Manager
Community Manager
February 6, 2020

Hi Chris,

 

We are sorry about the bands that in the gradient in Photoshop while working with the Gradient tool. 

 

Please update Photoshop to the latest version (21.0.3) through the Creative Cloud desktop application and check if the issue persists. You can also check for updates for both Windows and the Graphics card drivers (from the manufacturers website) to ensure that the issue is not related to missing updates or faulty drivers.

 

Try calibrating your monitor to the sRGB 2.1 color profile and check if that helps. You can check: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-configure-correct-color-profile-your-monitor-windows-10

 

Regards,

Nikunj

D Fosse
D Fosse
Community Expert
February 6, 2020

While there's nothing explicitly wrong in that link, using a calibrator will always give superior results over generic manufacturer profiles. In addition, these manufacturer profiles are surprisingly often defective, not written correctly to icc specification. One of the most frequent color management issues we see here is bad manufacturer profiles, usually distributed through Windows Update.

 

Another thing is that you don't calibrate a monitor "to sRGB". That makes no sense. You can use sRGB as a generic display profile if you don't have a calibrator, or as a diagnostic test.

M
mal25Author
Known Participant
February 7, 2020

D_Fosse,

Thanks for responding.  The document profile is assigned to the photo, you have just mentioned it ProPhoto, Adobe 1998 RGB, or sRGB.

"If these curves are a bit irregular, it will sit on top of, and add to, the normal 8-bit banding. Banding is cumulative and it quickly adds up."

This is interesting, also I do use the ProPhoto profile these days as it has a larger Gamut than Adobe 1998 RGB, I will look out for the banding problem you raised.  I have updated both Intel and Gforce drivers still no difference, I don't know how to set the GPU to Basic.  The document with the banding is only 8 bits and it has an sRGB profile.  

You do understand that the eyedropper is reading directly from the document and not measuring color from the screen, if you open a photo take a reading then change the monitor color using one of the RGB controls on the monitor and remeasure at the same spot the readings will match regardless how strong a color cast you have added to the monitor. I think I will start by deleting the video drivers and reload them but the other problem is that it doesn't react as it should in other ways like the drag and drop from the Gradient Editor.  I was thinking of a re-install of PS 2020 yesterday, as I was backing up settings and presets I came across some psp files and there were two for gradients, they seemed different to the presets for gradients, which I have none because I don't save them. Are these the files that control the gradients behavior, can they be replaced without a complete re-install?  Anyway thanks for your time.

Chris

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