Unusual gradient/ transparency pixelation issue.

[LukasGoman]

2 Weeks ago after I formatted my hardrive and installed a new and clean version of Photoshop CC I ran into a weird problem (see attached picture). All of my soft brush strokes/ gradients from a dark color to transparent get this weird pixelation instead of beeing smooth like they should.

I have tried the following things without sucess:

-Reset brushes

-Reset/ delete preferences

-Reinstall Photoshop

-Rollback, update and switch GPU Drivers

-Turn off OpenGL

-Switch to different color-modes /-profiles

-Start windows in save mode without drivers

-Change monitors

I have only found a single thread on a different website about this issue (https://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/photoshop-newbies/27693-brush-pixelation-transparent-background...). Unfortunately they could not find a working solution either. I thought it was a hardware problem, but saving a psd-file with said issue in it and opening it on my other PC with a different version of Photoshop (CS6) replicated the problem (now persistend on this computer aswell). The problem appears only in Photoshop. Other Adobe programms and other photo editors (namely "gimp" and "paint.net") have no problem with transparency whatsoever.

The exported pictures (png and jpg) look fine, this only appears while working inside photoshop.

Here is a video I found showing my exact problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpKcfyMcmCo

These are my specs:

-OS: Windows 7 Professional

-GPU: GTX 1070

-CPU: i5 3570k

-RAM: 24GB

-Mainboard: Gigabyte Z68x-UD3H

I hope you can help me.

[ManjinderSingh]

Please try using big size canvas/ document. and also try increase hardness of the brush, Slider just below brush size slider.

[LukasGoman]

Increased canvas to 1000x1000 pixels, made 3 strokes with variable hardness. No change.

[Trevor.Dennis]

They look OK on my screen.

[LukasGoman]

Ok wow this is getting weird now. Opening these Pictures on computers where I opened the .psd file displays them distorted and pixelated, but if I open them on other computers they look fine. I took a photo with my phone. Are you not seeing this? This must be an issue with my display / display driver then.

[Todd Shaner]

I'm not seeing the issue in your screenshots. Can you post a PSD to Dropbox that exhibits the issue and put the share link in a reply here?

[LukasGoman]

Hello. Here is a dropbox link to a quick test-file aswell as a picture of what I am seeing. The file is a simple black gradient on transparency and on white background. On the top is a small black layer with Opacity set to 99% (displayed in the picture).

This is the basic problem in its core. As you can see the black rectangles opacity on transparent background is way to low compared to the white background this causes the pixelated brushes  / pixelation that I am experiencing. For some reason dark colors loose their opacity way to quickly on a trnasparent background.

Link to the test file.

Dropbox - Test 1.psd

[melissapiccone]

The black test block has transparency... I'm not sure what this has to do with your brushes. You can't measure your transparency against the checkerboard - what you are seeing against the white is real. Brushes are 256 levels of translucency - from completely opaque to completely transparent. Black - actual black - 000 - is complete opaque, white - 255, 255, 255 is completely transparent and then all of the grays in between are transparancies - just like in your gradient.

Looking at your screenshot again - it looks like your brushes look fine over white, but over the checkerboard they are messed up. I don't know what is happening. I don't know why it would be OK over white and get all weird over the checkerboard.

I watched the youtube video and I don't see the problem... the brushes look fine to me in the video. The only way I can even see it, is from your phone screenshot. Take a picture of screen with your sample file up - the whole screen.

[LukasGoman]

Hi Melissa, here is a picture of the whole file taken with my phone. I can explain what my "transparency test" has to do with the weird brushes: When I paint with a soft brush I am getting a gradient on the edges from my brush-color to the color underneath, correct? This gradient is achieved my slowly lowering the opacity of the brush-stroke towards the edges (I think. I am in no way a professional) thus blending both colors together. What I found in my test was dark colors experience a kind of "jump" in opacity in this gradient instead of a gradual decrease.

So 100% opacity is "true black" while 99% opacity looks (at least on my side ) more like 60% opacity on a tranparent background. Does that make sense? If we look back at the first few photos that I posted you can see that some pixels are completly black while other pixels seem to have only a 60% transparency or lower. Higher opacity values (except 100%) seem to be nonexistant. I've gone ahead and started formatting my PC now. Lets hope that (another) clean install fixes the problem.

I can also savely say that this is not a hardware problem. I changed all my video related cables, tried different monitors, I even tried 3 different graphics cards by now. So it is either a Photoshop-problem or (most likely) a driver issue.

[melissapiccone]

This looks the same on my Mac as your screenshot.

Yes, you have everything correct in what you said. You understand how it all works.

The discrepancy comes from the checkerboard. The purpose of the checkerboard is a visual cue to you that there is transparency. It's not meant to accurately show you the level of transparency. Mixing gray and white checkerboard with a gradient isn't going to show you what is really happening. You can change your checkerboard in the preferences, but I seriously doubt that will help.

What is your end game? Even if you want it transparent, for a png, that image will go on some background - in the end there really isn't a transparent background - you put a png on a web page with a color or pattern, or like I do, a digital scrapbooking graphic that is a transparent png goes over a picture or patterned paper or something.

[LukasGoman]

I don't really have an endgame. I really just want this issue resolved, because it is quite annoying to know "that there is that one issue with transparency which only exists in my photoshop and did not exist before". It is not really a big problem, the easiest work-around is just using a white background from now on, but knowing that a driver or piece of software doesn't work correctly or has faulty functions drives me insane (I am working in IT).

Oh well, let's see what that reformatt does. I will post an update as soon as I have everything back up and running.

Thank you to everyone who helped so far.

Have a great evening.

[davescm]

Luke

See the thread linked below, where we looked into this:

Photoshop Masking brush issues

You are seeing an on screen artefact that only shows over the checkerboard. It does not affect the actual image when the gradient is applied.

Dave

[LukasGoman]

Hi Dave, this looks a lot like the problem I am having. As you stated in the other thread it does not affect the final image which applies in my case aswell.

Has this issue ever been resolved?

Is it a common bug?

[Todd Shaner]

LukasGoman wrote:

Hello. Here is a dropbox link to a quick test-file aswell as a picture of what I am seeing. The file is a simple black gradient on transparency and on white background. On the top is a small black layer with Opacity set to 99% (displayed in the picture).

This is the basic problem in its core. As you can see the black rectangles opacity on transparent background is way to low compared to the white background this causes the pixelated brushes / pixelation that I am experiencing. For some reason dark colors loose their opacity way to quickly on a trnasparent background.

Link to the test file.

Dropbox - Test 1.psd

The downloaded PSD looks normal on my Windows 7 system. I agree with melissapiccone that I'm not sure has this relates to your brush stroke issue.I suggest posting a PSD with the brush stroke issue. This may be a Mac OS X issue.

[melissapiccone]

The OP has Windows 7, too, not Mac.

[D Fosse]

You're not seeing this, Todd or Melissa?

It looks like a video driver bug to me.

[melissapiccone]

I see it in the screenshot of his screen... yes it looks like something is off with the monitor settings, colors or the driver.

[Todd Shaner]

D Fosse wrote:

You're not seeing this, Todd or Melissa?

It looks like a video driver bug to me.

No I'm not seeing that in the brush stroke screenshot in reply #2....it looks normal and as expected:

[melissapiccone]

Your brush strokes look fine to me. I'm looking on my iPad.

[Minchy.]

Image > Mode > 16 Bits/Channel
This worked for me in some cases, I have the same problem and I haven't found any other solution unfortunately.
If this doesn't work try 32 Bits.

[davescm]

@Minchy. 32 bits/channel uses floating point numbers instead of integer and is for HDR i.e. it has an extended dynamic range that goes beyond the whiteset white, or blackest black, that can be displayed in 8 bit or 16 bits /channel. It does not introduce additional steps into the existing gradient between black and white and as such will not help here.

Dave

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, I was wondering if the issue also shows at 100% magnification

[davescm]

The issue of artifacts against the transparency grid does show at 100%. However the issue disappears if a temporary white or grey layer is used instead of the transparency checkerboard.

Dave