CSS linear gradient doesn't look like Photoshop's, can it be fixed?

Question

While using a CSS black to transparent linear-gradient I noticed that it doesn't gradually fade to transparent, instead it makes the grey area linger longer and only near the end it becomes transparent with a noticeable limit.

After noticing this I decided to use a photoshop gradient with the exact properties and it looked better, the gradient was changing from black to transparent smoothly and linearly.

The following contains an example showing a CSS linear-gradient on the left and Photoshop generated gradient on the right - Both were created with the exact same properties:

#css, #ps{
  height:100px;
  width:50%;
  }
#css{
  float:left;
  background:linear-gradient(black, transparent);
  }
#ps{
  float:right;
  background:url("data:image/png;base64,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");
}

<div id="css"></div>
<div id="ps"></div>

As you can see the difference is clearly visible. Is it possible to replicate Photoshop's real linear-gradient into CSS's or my only option is to use base64/png tricks to achieve an actual linear gradient? Because currently css's linear-gradient is everything but linear, in fact from what I can see it creates an easeInOut-gradient instead of linear.

Answer 1

As GRC says, you can set multiple midpoints values to adapt the gradient to your exact needs

A good starting point is colorzilla, where you can import an image file and get an automated result.

For your image, the result is:

.test {
    height: 100px;
    background: #020202; /* Old browsers */
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #020202 0%, #1f1f1f 9%, #434343 18%, #989898 38%, #b2b2b2 45%, #d1d1d1 56%, #e9e9e9 67%, #f2f2f2 73%, #f9f9f9 80%, #fdfdfd 87%, #fefefe 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
    background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#020202), color-stop(9%,#1f1f1f), color-stop(18%,#434343), color-stop(38%,#989898), color-stop(45%,#b2b2b2), color-stop(56%,#d1d1d1), color-stop(67%,#e9e9e9), color-stop(73%,#f2f2f2), color-stop(80%,#f9f9f9), color-stop(87%,#fdfdfd), color-stop(100%,#fefefe)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  #020202 0%,#1f1f1f 9%,#434343 18%,#989898 38%,#b2b2b2 45%,#d1d1d1 56%,#e9e9e9 67%,#f2f2f2 73%,#f9f9f9 80%,#fdfdfd 87%,#fefefe 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
    background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  #020202 0%,#1f1f1f 9%,#434343 18%,#989898 38%,#b2b2b2 45%,#d1d1d1 56%,#e9e9e9 67%,#f2f2f2 73%,#f9f9f9 80%,#fdfdfd 87%,#fefefe 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
    background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  #020202 0%,#1f1f1f 9%,#434343 18%,#989898 38%,#b2b2b2 45%,#d1d1d1 56%,#e9e9e9 67%,#f2f2f2 73%,#f9f9f9 80%,#fdfdfd 87%,#fefefe 100%); /* IE10+ */
    background: linear-gradient(to bottom,  #020202 0%,#1f1f1f 9%,#434343 18%,#989898 38%,#b2b2b2 45%,#d1d1d1 56%,#e9e9e9 67%,#f2f2f2 73%,#f9f9f9 80%,#fdfdfd 87%,#fefefe 100%); /* W3C */
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#020202', endColorstr='#fefefe',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */
}

<div class="test"></div>

The problem is that this tool gives only rgb values, you will need to manually convert those to rgba, and play with the alpha values.