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Gradient fills created in FreeHand appear banded on screen

Gradient fills created in FreeHand appear banded on screen

Issue

An object containing a gradient fill has distinct bands of color on screen instead of a smooth transition from one color to another.
Note: To view this TechNote set the Monitor above 256 color display.

Banded

Smooth

Reason
Various monitor settings including color bit depth and screen resolution, FreeHand preference settings, and the preview mode in FreeHand 8 will effect the screen display of gradient fills.

Solution

To have gradient fills appear smooth on screen do one or more of the following:

  Monitor Resolution
On Multiple Resolution Monitors increase the Screen Resolution of the Monitor.

Monitor settings (Windows)

1

Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display.

2 Select the Settings Tab.
  Increase the Color Palette to a Higher setting.
  Increase the screen resolution in the Desktop area.
   
  Monitor settings (Macintosh)
1 Choose Apple Menu > Control Panel > Monitors.
2 Select Millions of Colors.
  FreeHand 8 Preferences and FreeHand 7
1 Choose File > Preferences > General and turn on Smoother editing.
 
  FreeHand 8 (Windows)
 
  FreeHand 8 (Macintosh)
   
  FreeHand 5 Preferences
1 Choose File > Preferences > Redraw and turn on Better (but slower) display.

  FreeHand 5 (Windows)
 

FreeHand 5/5.5 (Macintosh)

   
  FreeHand 8 View mode
1

Set the View mode pop-up at the bottom of the FreeHand Window to Preview.

   
Note: The Fast Preview mode will show the gradients at a lower resolution.

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