Not Another Gradient Generator

The web is full of gradient generators. So I thought I'd make another one: Not Another Gradient Generator

It has some novel features though:

Generates linear, radial, and conic gradients.
Allows you to layer gradients to make complex designs.
Automatically adds colors to prevent gradients looking washed out.
Exports gradients as CSS, SVG, PNG, and JPEG.

Layered Gradients

I started this project with the goal of being able to replicate the instagram logo gradient in CSS. The instagram logo isn't a simple linear or radial gradient. It's complex and made by clever graphic designers using expensive software.

But CSS allows us to layer gradients on top of each other, by combining radial and linear gradients you can approximate the same thing:

This almost looks like it, the main issue is that it's all washed out. The colors become less saturated in the middle of the gradient.

To solve this problem I wrote some code that adds higher saturated colors to fill in the gray-ish bits, and the results were much better:

Here's how it works…

HSLuv color interpolation magic

CSS and SVG color gradients tend to go gray in the middle where the colors converge. This is because they use the RGB color space.

Imagine you have a color gradient going from yellow to blue. rgb(255, 255, 0) to rgb(0, 0, 255). CSS and SVG will interpolate the R, G, and B values seperately. So the middle value of yellow and blue becomes rgb(128, 128, 128) which is gray:

But we know that the middle color of yellow and blue is green. So, to fix that Not Another Gradient Generator converts the colors to HSLuv — a more human-friendly color space. Then it adds intermediary colors and converts it back to RGB for use on the interwebs: