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0 pointslayer87mo ago0 comments

A good gradient is one that takes a perceptually uniform, and typically perceptually shortest, path. The OKLCH gradient isn't perceptual uniform and appears to take unnecessary detours through other hues.

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cubefox7mo ago

One could also argue that the detour through other hues is necessary in this case to avoid going through grey.

layer8OP7mo ago

Gray is arguably just another color, it’s not clear why you’d want to avoid it. How is going via red and yellow better than going via gray? Varying hue is often perceived as a larger change than varying saturation or lightness. A path going through several distinct hues is visually less uniform than one going through gray once.

the_af7mo ago

Is gray perceived as "just another color" or where all colors go when desaturated? I assumed the latter, which would explain why to avoid it if one isn't playing with saturation.

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brulard7mo ago

Let's say you continuously change wavelength of a laser from blue (~480nm) to red (~630nm), you are going through green, not through gray. If in your use case going through gray makes sense, that's ok, there may be many paths from one color to another.

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AnimalMuppet7mo ago

It depends on how you think about your spread. If, as someone else said, you're trying to represent a tunable laser going from red to blue, going through gray is completely wrong. That is not what a laser will do, ever. It will always be a fully saturated color.

So, depending on what you're doing, you want different things. You may want to view your color space as an RGB cube, and go through gray. Or you may want to view your color space as something more like HLS or OKLCH, and not go through gray.

DemocracyFTW27mo ago

Gray is arguably not just another color; I don't know about English but in German you have 'bunte' and 'unbunte' colors; 'unbunte' colors are white, black, and the grays in between

itishappy7mo ago

It's an ugly color. Saturation makes stuff pop; this is often desirable. This is why I think it's important to have both polar (OKLCH) and rectilinear (Oklab) gradients.

cubefox7mo ago

Let's say neither going through gray nor through two different hues looks particularly great. It's pick your poison.

ghurtado7mo ago

> Gray is arguably just another color

Only if you're working with additive color.

With substractive, grey is just a darker (or dimmer) white.

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cubefox7mo ago

One could also argue that the detour through other hues is necessary in this case to avoid going through grey.

layer8OP7mo ago

the_af7mo ago

Is gray perceived as "just another color" or where all colors go when desaturated? I assumed the latter, which would explain why to avoid it if one isn't playing with saturation.

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brulard7mo ago

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AnimalMuppet7mo ago

DemocracyFTW27mo ago

Gray is arguably not just another color; I don't know about English but in German you have 'bunte' and 'unbunte' colors; 'unbunte' colors are white, black, and the grays in between

itishappy7mo ago

It's an ugly color. Saturation makes stuff pop; this is often desirable. This is why I think it's important to have both polar (OKLCH) and rectilinear (Oklab) gradients.

cubefox7mo ago

Let's say neither going through gray nor through two different hues looks particularly great. It's pick your poison.

ghurtado7mo ago

> Gray is arguably just another color

Only if you're working with additive color.

With substractive, grey is just a darker (or dimmer) white.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse