"Usenet User" <no.spam@no.way> wrote in message
news:8u5es39qda867umi3dp5h1ujr1ocv9uqdh@4ax.com...
> Problem: create a 256-px-wide grayscale picture, filled with a linear
> gradient from 0 to 255
>
> Settings for the gradient tool:
>
> Foreground to background
> Linear gradient
> Mode: normal
> Opacity: 100%
> Reverse: no
> Dither: no
> Transparency: no
>
> To my surprise, the resulting gradient is not linear. It seems like it
> is a bit squished toward the center, i.e., the edge color are a bit
> stretched.
>
> Any ideas?

Click on the gradient in the gradient tool settings at the top of the
screen, and set the Smoothness slider to zero.

Gradient smoothness has been with us since at least Photoshop 5.5. Even
today, many discussions of this feature assume that the term smoothness
means an even distribution of gradient values. The term actually means the
opposite: the use of a spline function to weight the ends of the gradient so
that color transitions within the gradient are smoother. At the time this
feature was introduced, this was considered to be so superior to a linear
gradient that there was no way to disable it! Photoshop 6.0 provided a way
to control smoothness in the gradient editor.
---
Mike Russell - www.curvemeister.com