Reconstructing freeform gradients from an input image

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions stored thereon which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

• receive an input image;
• compute an outline of the input image;
• identify a set of candidate color handles for the input image, each candidate color handle of the set of candidate color handles representing an extremum point for a color in the input image;
• generate a reconstructed image using a subset of the set of candidate color handles;
• determine a reconstruction error by computing a difference between the input image and the reconstructed image;
• and
• provide the reconstructed image when the reconstruction error is below a threshold value.

A system, comprising:

• a computing device including a memory and at least one processor, the computing device implementing a digital design system,
• wherein the memory includes instructions stored thereon which, when executed, cause the digital design system to:
• receive an input image;
• compute an outline of the input image;
• identify a set of candidate color handles for the input image, each candidate color handle of the set of candidate color handles representing an extremum point for a color in the input image;
• generate a reconstructed image using a subset of the set of candidate color handles;
• determine a reconstruction error by computing a difference between the input image and the reconstructed image;
• and
• provide the reconstructed image when the reconstruction error is below a threshold value.