So you decide that you want to use the gradient tool to make some adjustments, say a bit of darkening in the sky, for example.

Fine… but only do it once!

If you do it and decide it’s not dark enough, do not go back and layer another gradient on top of the one you just did!

Undo it, change the setting, and do it so that there is only one iteration of the tool.

Why? Because layering them will produce banding.

You might not see it at first glance, but I assure you it’s there.

Of course, I found this out the hard way (as I do all the tips I put up here) – a graduated sky in one of my images had been in that state for at least three years. I never noticed it, and when I printed it, even with my ImagePrint RIP, it never popped out at me.

Then I got the Piezography 7-shades-of-gray system and devoted a printer to it.

And there it was, plain as day. At first, I thought it was my new system, but I went back to the image and blew it up to 150% and moved the cursor over the sky… and watched the number change. (Actually, I could see them on the monitor too. I guess I wasn’t paying attention before.)

The other printers used black and two grays, so there was a bunch of dithering going on, which effectively disguised the banding. The use of 7 inks, however, pointed out the problem in all its glory.

End of tale.