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Gradient lab was mostly a rewrite of existing technology from the old KPT 3 Gradient Designer. As well as the standard gradient tools familiar to KPT users, we exposed a layering system that had been present as an easter egg previously, some new blend modes that hadn't been added to menus, we added a few new shape modes, and finally we added a new set of tools known as 'guides'.
The layering and blend mode systems made the biggest difference to the filter. As well as the standard linear, radial, and shaped gradients, you can now layer multiple gradients of any kind on top of one another, blending between them. Better still, you can go back and adjust the parameters of any of them at any point. This creates some really interesting colour interactions as you rotate gradient layers at the bottom of a large stack and watch the system update on the fly.
Guides were introduced as a precision tool for gradient design. Guides are 'markers' that can be added at any point along your gradient and used to add colour. Guides can be moved, stretching the gradient with them, shifted to a new position, changing to reflect the colour of the gradient above them, and used like the bracket, to create fixed regions of colour editing. The addition of guides gives the Gradient Lab tools similar to the point entry gradients you'll see in many image editing packages, while still retaining the flexibility of the original bracket/entry system. |
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