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> And the way box shadows are implemented on the web is similar to gradients: they use a linear transition. This is wrong. Yes, linear gradients are everywhere
by tobr 7y ago
> And the way box shadows are implemented on the web is similar to gradients: they use a linear transition.
This is wrong. Yes, linear gradients are everywhere, even in nearly every professional graphic design tool, which is unfortunate since they are almost always the wrong choice. Box shadows, on the other hand, tend to be based on Gaussian blurs, which certainly doesn’t create a linear transition. This is also the way the CSS box-shadows spec say they should work: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-backgrounds-3/#shadow-blur https://drafts.csswg.org/css-backgrounds-3/#shadow-blur
- kilian 7y agoI stand corrected, I’ll update the article! If you compare the regular box shadow to the stepped example, it’s very clear that the gaussian blur doesn’t look nearly as natural as the multi stepped one.
- csallen 7y ago> which is unfortunate since they are almost always the wrong choice Why?
- pixelbash 7y agoI'm guessing because linear transitions often look unnatural. E.g. trying to do fades
- reggieband 7y agoI searched for a source but I couldn't find one. My recollection on the topic has to do with how humans perceive luminance within a gradient. Our eyes are better/worse at determining contrast differences between adjacent colours at different luminance. If you search for "luminance gradient" on Google you'll find a lot of scholarly articles on the subject but I was unable to track down one directly applied to graphic design. There is also a semi-famous demonstration [1] of how our eyes perceive gradients as shadows. In general this isn't an issue since most designers will either just stretch the gradient out or add additional gradient control points to adjust to fall-off manually. 1. http://persci.mit.edu/gallery/checkershadow http://persci.mit.edu/gallery/checkershadow
- tobr 7y agoThe article already explains and exemplifies this. It produces abrupt changes in “velocity” of the gradient at every color stop, which is rarely something you want.