How can I make a gray-scale image with a continuously changing intensity pattern?

Hi. I am trying to figure out how to make a gray-scale image with a continuously changing intensity pattern. For example, if I run the code below, I get a staircase-like discrete pattern along the horizontal direction because of the limited number of colormap values (?). I wonder if I can make it displayed more smoothly.

x = [1:10000]; figure(1), imagesc(x), colormap gray

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Shashank Prasanna]

I used your suggestion, is this better?

    x = [1:10000]; figure(1), imagesc(x), colormap gray

    set(gcf,'colormap',repmat(linspace(0,1,250)',1,3))

[ysung]

Thanks a lot Benji!

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

If you don't specify the number of steps in the colormap, it defaults to 64 which give rise to the step-like appearance. You can specify how many steps to give the colormap, up to a max of 256. So do this, to give a smoother appearance:

colormap(gray(256));

[ysung]

Thanks a lot Image Analyst!