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After using Photoshop on a daily basis for the past few years, today when I booted up I noticed that photoshops gradients were no longer smooth for me on my laptop monitor. Here's an example:
Original image here. In case you're curious, here's the PSD.
Admittedly, it isn't egregiously bad, but for a professional web designer it's bad enough to be a problem. I don't think this is an issue of "banding", which a lot of people seem to complain about online.
I'm running OS X Lion in a newest-gen MB Air. I've tried this in Photoshop CS5, Photoshop CS4, and Illustrator CS5, and it's an issue in all three.
I have my laptop attached to a Dell UltraSharp monitor and when I look at the file on that monitor it isn't a problem--it look perfect. So this would seem to be something wrong with my laptop monitor config.
Things I've tried thus far:
- Rebooting
- Updating system software
- Reinstalling Photoshop
- Recalibrating my display color profile
- Different color modes in Photoshop (RBG/CMYK and 8/16 bits)
- Banging head against wall
Any advice would be appreciated.
Jack7890
Posted 2011-11-14T23:26:32.923
Reputation: 229
Isn't the MB Air (and maybe the pro as well) 18bit color, not 24 bit? so there is dithering being done. Could that explain what you see? – freedenizen – 2011-11-14T23:35:37.633
1On the system/screen combo you're currently having issues on, was it working OK previously? – music2myear – 2011-11-14T23:37:46.837
@music2myear, yes it was working correctly before. This is a new development. – Jack7890 – 2011-11-14T23:39:00.230
@freedenizen, rather than seeing a continuous gradient, I see a horizontal line (at the point where I drew the arrow saying "Discontinuity") where there is a jump between colors. – Jack7890 – 2011-11-14T23:41:19.243
5I guess your laptop monitor is ageing. This is a normal problem with lcd monitors. If you have a warranty left you might want to try to get a new panel and / or a new background light. – Darokthar – 2011-11-15T00:16:10.293
@Darokthar, fwiw, the computer is only 2-3 months old. I realize it's certainly still possible for a monitor to be defective after only a few months, but it's perhaps less likely. – Jack7890 – 2011-11-15T00:30:10.813
Weird. It looks like the red is clipped at 236, and the discontinuity is where it hits that value. All the pixels below the discontinuity transition to 156, and all the pixels above are stuck. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams – 2011-11-15T00:50:48.460
Nice color profile name BTW :P – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams – 2011-11-15T00:51:08.897
@IgnacioVazquez-Abrams, interesting...what do you think would cause that? – Jack7890 – 2011-11-15T01:24:51.517
Not a clue. I don't use Photoshop. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams – 2011-11-15T01:27:44.907
@IgnacioVazquez-Abrams I don't see what you're talking about, I see a continuous band which goes all the way to a red value of 255 on my computer (verified both on the image and the .PSD file). – Breakthrough – 2011-11-15T11:59:35.503
@ The OP, this is normal behaviour for an LCD/LED screen. Related: http://superuser.com/questions/316227/why-a-banded-black-to-indigo-gradient-causes-my-dell-lcd-screen-to-flicker/316258#316258
– Breakthrough – 2011-11-15T12:00:08.047@Breakthrough: Try loading the color profile embedded in the PNG. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams – 2011-11-15T12:21:43.050