[CREATE] What is a gradient?

[Joao S. O. Bueno]

On Wednesday 11 June 2008, Olivier BERTEN wrote:
> I mean, in graphic design/visual art, not in mathematics.
>
>
> Is it limited to color? 3 samples: http://www.selapa.net/create/
>
>
> Do you think these are gradients, why?

I don't see these as gradients. We could even refer to these as 
computed patterns.  I think that  because these are not "drop in" 
substitutes for gradients today. IMHO the major difference lies in 
that these patterns need two coordinates rather than one to get a 
color value.  

However, of course the idea of a cross-application, resuable, 
scalable, rendered 2d patterns sounds nice for me. Maybe these could 
be implemented alongside gradients. Such patterns could, for example, 
be written as postscript functions - or some other language for 
expressions that would be easily embedable almost anywhere (Lua comes 
to mind).

	js
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