I just came up with a technique that produces a super fast gaussian blur effect It only works for circles, but many times blurred circles are enough to add some softness to an object or a drop shadow. The idea is simple: create a multi step linear gradient that approximates the gaussian distribution of real blur.

1. Create a blurred circle
2. Create a normal circle just next to it
3. Add a radial gradient to (2)
4. Add some gradient stops
5. For each gradient stop, use the color picker to sample from the corresponding place on the blurred circle


The resulting gradient looks great, renders insanely fast and can be exported to PDF:s!! I have attached a quick and dirty proof of concept where I used a grid to simplify the color-picking-process.

Cheers,
Filip

Hi.
Very clever,indeed.
RGDS Ragnar