The radial gradient gives visible "steps", what will happen after printing and how to smooth the effect?

Question

Design

I'm making a layout for a large banner, using a radial gradient fill on the background. I exported to jpeg and see obvious "steps". How to deal with it? Somehow I used: photoshop + noise. Maybe there is a better way? And in general, will these steps be visible after printing?

Answer 1

These steps are a disease of the 8 bits per color channel mode. 8 bits is 256 brightness levels. This is very small for long single color gradients like the one you've attached. The ideal option is to start working in 16 bit per channel mode (when creating a document, change the Color Mode from 8 bit to 16 bit). In this case, before exporting to jpeg, simply merge all layers and convert the image from 16 to 8 bits (menu Image> Mode> 8 Bits/Channel). All stepped gradients will be magically smoothed out.
In order not to redraw everything, you can change the mode to 16 bits for an already finished document and redraw only those gradients that give such an obvious aliasing. Or if the document has gradients that are not created by the Gradient Tool, but, for example, using a gradient layer (Fill Layer) or using layer effects, then you can convert the document to 16 bits without changing anything. Then, just before exporting, merge all layers, convert the document to 8 bits per channel and save to jpeg or any desired format.

Answer 2

Gradients are really a problem in print. Noise is one way to solve it, that's right.
Another thing is that the banner is usually viewed from afar, and no one will notice such trifles.
If it is assumed that the banner will be viewed from close, you will have to work on the gradient. Noise as an option. A fine texture might help. Or just change the design.