Find gradient from image: Match a picture, explained

To find gradient from image colours in Gradiently, open Match a picture and drop in the photo of the look you want. It reads the picture's colours, light and texture, shows you its palette, searches the Market for Marks that already look like it, and makes new versions as close to it as it can. Pick the one that feels right, and claim it: a new version becomes a Mark made by you and owned by you.

This guide covers how it works, how to choose a good source picture, and what to do with the results. If you just want a palette from a photo for another tool, pulling a colour palette from a photo covers the manual method.

How Match a picture works

1. 1

   Drop a picture

   Drop it on the page, paste it, choose a file, or take a photo on your phone. PNG, JPEG, WebP or HEIC, up to 8 MB. Or try one of the examples: dusk, night, pastel or dahlia.

2. 2

   It reads the picture

   Gradiently pulls out its colours and describes how it reads, for example dark, cool, soft, flowing. Those words guide the material and light it tries.

3. 3

   It looks through the Market

   At the same time it searches every Mark for ones that already look like your picture.

4. 4

   It proposes and refines versions

   It proposes versions, tries materials against your picture and brings each one closer. Every version shows how close it is as a percentage.

5. 5

   You pick, refine and claim

   Compare a version with your picture, ask for another round, open it in the Forge, rename it, and claim it.

The whole process happens on one page, and versions appear as they are made. If the AI is unavailable or busy, you still get versions: they are made from your picture's colours and light instead, and you can ask the AI to look again later.

What it reads in your picture

Colour is only part of a look. Two photos with the same five colours can feel completely different, one misty and still, the other sharp and busy. Match a picture describes each picture across several qualities, and those descriptions steer which materials it tries.

Choosing a good source picture

The closer your picture is to a background, the closer the match. Match a picture is looking for a field of colour and light, so pictures with one clear subject and a busy scene around it are harder to match than skies, textures, fabrics, flowers up close or abstract paintings.

Working with the versions

Each version is labelled with where it came from: proposed by the AI, made from your picture, or like a Mark in the Market. Its score shows how close it is to your picture. Use the swipe comparison to check it against the original, then use the actions below it.

• Closer runs another round of refining on the version you are looking at.
• More like this makes three new versions in its spirit.
• Tune in Forge opens it in the Forge as your draft, for full control.
• Name lets you rename it before you claim it.
• Claim makes it yours: a new Mark in the Market, made by you and owned by you, free while Gradiently launches.

When the Market already has it

Sometimes a Mark already in the Market is very close to your picture. If nobody holds it, Match a picture offers it first: closer than any new version, and free to claim as it is. If someone else owns a Mark that looks like your picture, every version made for you stays clearly different from it, so you never end up with a near-copy of someone else's look. That is the same rule the Forge applies to every Mark before it is published; see AI design originality.

Your picture itself stays private. It is uploaded only so the AI can look at it, and it is never shown on a Mark or in the Market. Match a picture uses AI credits when the AI reads your picture and proposes versions. If you only want your photo's colours as a starting palette, the Forge's Start from a photo keeps the photo on your device and lets you choose the material yourself.