Gradients Overview
A Fractal Science Kit fractal generator gradient stores a continuous set of colors mapped into the range 0 to 1.
Gradients are used by the Color Controllers to map the sample data to colors for display. Visually, a gradient is presented as a short wide rectangle filled with colors that vary smoothly as you move from left to right within the rectangle. The colors remain fixed as you move up and down. The horizontal position, as you move from the left edge to the right edge within the rectangle, is mapped into the range 0 to 1.
Each controller maintains a list of gradients using the Gradient List Control. The controller can access the gradients in the list using the Gradient Functions. These functions also support accessing individual colors within a gradient using a mapping from a number between 0 and 1 to a color. This is done by linearly mapping the number to a horizontal position within the gradient, and returning the color at that position.
The Fractal Science Kit comes with a collection of built-in gradients and the Gradient Editor which allows you to create your own.
You can also open selected gradient files created by other fractal programs (i.e., files named *.ugr). These are converted to a form compatible with the Fractal Science Kit and opened in a read-only Gradient Browser where you can copy selected gradients to your set of saved gradients in My Gradients where they will be accessible to your programs. To open one of these gradient files, use the Open File command on the Fractal Window.
The deviantART group Fractal Resources, for example, has a lot of gradient collections that you can download at Gradient Packs. In most cases you will need to download a .zip file and extract the .ugr file that contains the set of gradients you can load into the Fractal Science Kit.