P: Gradient editor needs a few improvements

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

It is almost impossible to use the gradient editor to simulate blending between lights, because it draws a straight line through RGB space. It would be good to be able to select HSL and LAB colour spaces for the gradient editor, and it would be even better if you could make bezier curves through RGB space, like the free tool at http://www.foddy.net/2010/10/gentle-g... is pretty frustrating that there was more flexibility in Deluxe Paint IV's gradient tool 23 years ago than there is in Photoshop's gradient tool now.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I didn't embed a profile, so it may look different depending on your display and browser.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Chris, you could at least try to make the endpoints match.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

So upload one with an embedded profile! The one you've posted here is nothing but an admission of defeat.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

It is an arbitrary curve, because you are setting the control points (there are no tangents to set). We're talking about a cardinal spline, not a bezier.

And I'm still trying to figure out what you're talking about.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Again, you may be seeing something different depending on your display and browser. When I created it, they were a close match.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm trying to tell you that I could do a lot more with a bezier than a cardinal spline! It's not so hard to understand!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

So all you're claiming here is that you understand bezier splines and don't want to learn a different UI that can produce the same results?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

No dude, I'm trying to tell you that you CAN'T produce the same results with cardinal splines, which is a basic mathematical fact about bezier vs. cardinal splines. When I asked you produce the same result with the photoshop UI, you totally failed.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

hahaha, yikes. Ok, I get it, you're not serious about improving the product, you'd rather just negate the things I'm telling you and call me an idiot. Can you maybe wave someone over who wants to actually hear from customers?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

OK, instead of matching screen appearance, here's one matching your values, which took about 12 seconds to tweak the midpoints between stops.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ugh, that does not look remotely the same, and you have an ugly hard band between red and purple and between purple and blue.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Here's my original gradient and your 'identical' version side-by-side. If you think these look the same, this is a lost cause.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

As written, it does not make sense - you left out significant context needed for it to make sense.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

So far there isn't a useful suggestion here. I'm trying to understand the source of the problem, and so far it just seems that you prefer the UI that you wrote, and don't understand the existing UI in Photoshop.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

well do you understand it now?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

You are grossly misrepresenting my statements.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Not the same, but close, because I didn't spend a lot of time trying to match it exactly.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ok, here are three concrete UI suggestions that would help:

1 - allow the user to specify a non-RGB color space when designing gradients within an RGB document (for example, a gradient that traces a spline in LAB or HSL)

2 - allow the user to specify a custom gamma for the gradient when designing the gradient, without having to change the colour scheme for their whole document (which leads to huge problems as we see below where you post an image that looks completely wrong without realizing)

3 - best: allow the user to use bezier splines instead of cardinal splines for their control points. I'm honestly not sure what the best UI solution is for this, but it can't be that hard to solve.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

You will never get it sufficiently close for design work, and you will never manage to get rid of those ugly banding problems, because it's a mathematical limitation of cardinal splines.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Yes, between several of your posts you've provided some of the context to understand what you meant but didn't quite say.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ok look, honestly I don't care about you being rude and weirdly defensive, I just want the feature to be fixed. Now that you understand what I'm saying, can you get someone to investigate solutions?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

1) The user can already specify the control points in a non-RGB space. I think you mean to allow a specification of which colorspace the control points will be interpolated in, before being converted to the document colorspace.

2) Again, I think you mean a gamma value for the interpolation before converting to the document colorspace. (and a gamma value for LAB makes no sense)

The example image difference was due to browser color management (wide gamut display matched, sRGB didn't) - not gamma. I should have opened the file instead of sampling values from the screen.

3) I've never seen a good UI for color gradients using bezier controls -- there are too many degrees of freedom involved (it becomes a 3D curve). One might exist, but I haven't seen it yet (and I keep track of all the curves and gradient UIs out there)

This is much closer to what you should have suggested in the first place.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

1) yes, that is what I mean.

2) yes, that's what I mean.

3) I agree that having real bezier controls requires a much more significant overhaul of the editor, but it will also give the user the best ability to create high-quality gradients for the widest variety of purposes.

I also agree that full control of a 3D curve is probably too much for the average user to comprehend, and I can understand why you wouldn't want to have a separate, 'advanced' gradient editor. But I honestly can't imagine that this is an impossible UI problem, and the benefits would be huge.

However, if it *is* impossible to do, you would get 90% of the creative control by implementing both suggestions 1) and 2) and sticking with cardinal splines, and the increase in editor complexity would be quite minimal.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I haven't been rude or defensive. I've been trying to understand your requests, why you don't seem to understand the Photoshop gradient UI, and correct several of your misunderstandings about gradients in Photoshop.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Ok then, now that you've done that, can you get someone to investigate solutions?