Color Banding New To Leopard?

[tritogeneia]

I wasn't sure where to post this – Mac OS X, MBP, or Design forums – but here's the problem I'm having:

I recently completed a clean install of Leopard on my MBP (2.16 Core Duo, 2GB) and then installed CS3 Design Suite Premium. Last night, as I was using the color selector in Photoshop, I noticed that there was very obvious banding of the gradients. I double-checked my display setting and the "Display millions of colors" option is definitely checked.

I really don't remember noticing this when I was using CS2 on Tiger. So my question is, has anyone else had this problem? What's the consensus... is this a Leopard issue, a CS3 issue, or a hardware issue?

Any advice?

Thanks!
trito

 

[mnkeybsness]

This has many factors involved here. Is your photoshop document set to the right color settings?

What are the color values in your gradient and over what distance are you creating this gradient?

 

[tritogeneia]

Hey mnkeybsness – Thanks for responding!

To clear up some confusion, I wasn't actually creating a gradient. I was selecting a color in Photoshop CS3 (or trying to anyway) using the color picker, and I noticed that the color box on the left side of the dialog box was banded, whereas it usually presents as a smooth transition of colors.

In fact, I don't even have to have a document open to notice the difference. If I just open Photoshop and then click on the color picker (so that the color picker dialog box opens), you can see the banding. It's most obvious in the reds.

Incidentally, if I select the option in that dialog box for "Only web colors," the banding is significantly worse.

Here are some of my Photoshop settings that might be relevant:

• Color Picker is set to Adobe (not Apple)
• RGB Sliders
• RGB Spectrum
• Image Interpolation: Bicubic
• Let Photoshop use 70% of memory
• Enable 3D acceleration

I don't think I've noticed any color issues outside of Photoshop, but I'm not sure I have an accurate way of telling for certain. I guess I could have a display card problem, but my computer is only a year old and has been so reliable up until now. It's a mystery.

Thanks again for any advice or wisdom.
trito

 

[tritogeneia]

UPDATE - Mystery Solved

I resolved the issue by changing the Photoshop Color Settings from "North America General Purpose 2" to "Monitor Color." I'll probably set up a custom profile later, but in the meantime, no more banding. Whew!

Thanks again for your help, mnkeybsness!

 

[Cre8inator]

Same troubles... no solution!!!!

I am using Photoshop CS and having this SAME banding issue! It is very frustrating because I have never had this before and am not sure what brought this on.

The only thing that I can think of is that I recently did a software update (using the apple pulldown "software update" tool) and am now running OS X 10.4.11.

Something inside of this update must have screwed with Photoshop. When I open an image file (a logo containing a gradient) inside of "Preview"... it looks perfect. When I open the same image inside of Photoshop... COLOR BANDING! And it's really awful looking too. Nothing subtle.

Help! I tried your color preferences fix but had no success. I still have banding.

Let me know,
Cheers!
Luke