# Color Banding and how to worka around it. Softer brushes. **URL:** \ **Category:** Resources\ **Created:** [May 4, 2021, 10:11am UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178 "2021-05-04T10:11:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zer0Frost](https://krita-artists.org/user_avatar/krita-artists.org/zer0frost/32/231258_2.png) [@Zer0Frost](https://krita-artists.org/u/Zer0Frost)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2021, 10:11am UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178/1 "2021-05-04T10:11:59Z")
**Inroduction** Every time we try to crate smooth color transitions we experience Color Banding. This occurs because Krita doesnt have built in **dithering** not because our 8-bit collor depth. (Using higher bit depth with dithering will result even smoother gradients but without dithering we will get just denser banding) _Old thopic where this issue was explored:_ [Problems with Round Soft Brush - #6 by Zer0Frost](https://krita-artists.org/t/problems-with-round-soft-brush/3799/6) **Brush Setting** To achieve dithering in brush we will use **Randomness** and **Density** ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/9/5/955fc68b603bd90988d39ddd700723af29274952.png) Randomness will intordouse soft noise but doesn’t do good job at dithering color bands. Density will introduce deep dithering. This is what we need to soften Collor Banding but we can endup with noisy image if we dither over few color bands. **Examples and Brush Settings** Airbrush Soft ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/c/d/cd2eea1fc0212aa069bfbcbbf5bbd6a9c60c8e0b.jpeg) Airbrush Soft 80% Density ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/a/5/a5c6202ae2044e578900f9af927ddf21ec58b5fb.jpeg) Airbrush Soft 20% Randomness ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/4/0/40c44c99c269e10d4515067d0b285bbf469cbb8a.jpeg) **Examples and Blend Brush Settings** We can enchance build in Blender Blur brush by setting its density in thic case to 80% ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/f/d/fd1ebdac9236e49f25176f7f769a76a657a94cc8.jpeg) Using Blender Blur brush with density set to 26% and moving it along the color band will introduce proper dithering to a gradient. ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/4/5/456a63a68cbf6ba81c460d6c6c8b5a3d18911546.png) ![Capture](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/6/5/652d06fd44606eb334d3dcf24d6cb2959765a934.png) **Gradients and Filters** If we want to smooth big sufaces and we dont care about loosing detail we can use Filter-\>Other-\>RandomPick ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/7/5/75dccc786b93997299141bca3cf719fc9667dfbb.png) ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/8/6/865e6e0a78e513f35f86f6fd4085355390e13ede.png) ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/3/2/32990240d0a15ead1a3bccd9d464f1a58624a5a9.jpeg) **Summary** Dithering manually may result in noisy image so some practice and experimentation need to be put in to achieve good results. Thank you @raghukamath and @tiar for explaining to me banding issue. I hope someone will find this helpful 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EyeOdin](https://krita-artists.org/user_avatar/krita-artists.org/eyeodin/32/2662_2.png) [@EyeOdin](https://krita-artists.org/u/EyeOdin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178/2 "2021-05-05T14:39:57Z")
I thought that banding effect was because of bad RGB math when mixing colours. This seems to lessen the effect but I am not sure. This is what I was thinking: [![](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/b/4/b4054f0ee70f3d78ee34bb117a771ebd560ed521.jpeg "Computer Color is Broken") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKnqECcg6Gw) ---
**Author:** ![wolthera](https://krita-artists.org/user_avatar/krita-artists.org/wolthera/32/236085_2.png) [@wolthera](https://krita-artists.org/u/wolthera)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178/3 "2021-05-05T17:12:26Z")
No, it’s not caused by that, that’s a gamma correction thing. The problem here is just that 8bit isn’t enough for getting a fully imperceptibly smooth gradient. Anyway, the color smudge currently does some dithering, because all the maths is done in 16bit, and the gradient tools for 5.0 will have a ‘dither’ option, which uses blue noise to dither. ---
**Author:** ![EyeOdin](https://krita-artists.org/user_avatar/krita-artists.org/eyeodin/32/2662_2.png) [@EyeOdin](https://krita-artists.org/u/EyeOdin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178/4 "2021-05-06T17:13:25Z")
I once did a review on the [Tangent Engine](https://krita-artists.org/t/tangent-normal-engine/21619) and the conclusion for it’s banding was related to the bit depth too although there is is way more noticeable. I test this as is and for the tangent engine too then it is worth a shot. ---
**Author:** ![wolthera](https://krita-artists.org/user_avatar/krita-artists.org/wolthera/32/236085_2.png) [@wolthera](https://krita-artists.org/u/wolthera)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 5:23pm UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178/5 "2021-05-06T17:23:25Z")
Banding in the tangent normal engine is a bit more complex, though I don’t have the energy to go through all possible factors right now. However, this brush tip banding will also happen in 16 bit, the thing is that our brush tips are limited to 8bit for the foreseeable future. Patterns are affected similarly. ---
**Author:** ![EyeOdin](https://krita-artists.org/user_avatar/krita-artists.org/eyeodin/32/2662_2.png) [@EyeOdin](https://krita-artists.org/u/EyeOdin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178/6 "2021-05-06T17:28:08Z")
No need to worry about it then. I will try and tweak my normal painting brushes then I am curious to use this tutorial. ---
**Author:** ![Zer0Frost](https://krita-artists.org/user_avatar/krita-artists.org/zer0frost/32/231258_2.png) [@Zer0Frost](https://krita-artists.org/u/Zer0Frost)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 9:36am UTC](https://krita-artists.org/t/color-banding-and-how-to-worka-around-it-softer-brushes/23178/7 "2021-05-10T09:36:59Z")
Pictures i posted should be analized in zoom in additionally some compression might make result less apparent. Blaming Bit depth for visible band seem like natural course of action but there is more to it. Like i stated Increasing amouts of bits will only increase amouts of bands. And Krita seem to have some dithering but apparently its not sufficient enought. ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/c/9/c9e42e04f75d7ab5a476bf0eb12905d2f2d40d34.jpeg) ![image](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/8/f/8f71cf2fd8e2c83464f0058e69086303dcf3cfb9.jpeg) You can see Dithering in action. Zoom in on RandomPick Filter from First post You should be able to see 8bit banding on top half. ![Capture](https://krita-artists.org/uploads/default/original/3X/4/3/43a6c1cc4c9f1fabd2528b5ec394c90984e2c978.png)