Color Models

A color model is an mathematical orderly system for creating a whole range of colors from a small set of primary colors. There are two types of color models, those that are subtractive and those that are additive. Additive color models use light to display color while subtractive models use printing inks. Colors perceived in additive models are the result of transmitted light. Colors perceived in subtractive models are the result of reflected light. Some Important Terms : Hue is one of the three main attributes of perceived color, in addition to lightness and chroma !or colorfulness". Saturation in color theory the intensity of a specific hue Luminance It describes the amount of light that passes through or is emitted from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle. It is often used to characteri#e emission or reflection from flat, diffuse surfaces. Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to emit or give give out a given amount of light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target. $ach color model has is own gamut !range" of colors that can be displayed or printed. $ach color model is limited to only a portion of the visible spectrum. Since a color model has a particular range of available color or gamut, it is referred to as using a %color space%. An image or vector graphic is said to use either the &'( color space or the C)*+ color space !or the color space of another color model". Some graphic applications present the user with more than one color model for image editing or illustration and it is important to choose the right one for the task. The whole point of this article is to e,plain the difference between the two color models so you choose the right one for the -ob. .or you work to display at its best, choosing the right color model is critical.

The Two Most Common Color Models

There are several established color models used in computer graphics, but the two most common are the &'( model !&ed 'reen (lue" for computer display and the C)*+ model !Cyan )agenta *ellow blac+" for printing. RGB Color Model Additive color model .or computer displays /ses light to display color. Colors result from transmitted light CMYK Color Model Subtractive color model .or printed material /ses ink to display color. Colors result from reflected light

&ed0'reen0(lue12hite

Cyan0)agenta0*ellow1(lack

3otice the centers of the two color charts. In the &'( model, the convergence of the three primary additive colors produces white. In the C)*+ model, the convergence of the three primary subtractive colors produces black. In the &'( model notice that the overlapping of additive colors !red, green and blue" results in subtractive colors !cyan, magenta and yellow". In the C)*+ model notice that the overlapping of subtractive colors !cyan, magenta and yellow" results in additive colors !red, green and blue". Also notice that the colors in the &'( model are much brighter than the colors in the C)*+ model. It is possible to attain a much larger percentage of the visible spectrum with the &'( model. That is because the &'( model uses transmitted light while the C)*+ model uses reflected light. The muted appearance of the C)*+ model demonstrates the limitation of printing inks and the nature of reflected light. The colors in this chart appear muted because they are displayed within their printable gamut !see below".

RGB Color Model

The &'( model forms its gamut from the primary additive colors of red, green and blue. 2hen red, green and blue light is combined it forms white. Computers generally display &'( using 45 bit color. In the 45 bit &'( color model there are 467 variations for each of the additive colors of red, green and blue. Therefore there are 87,999,487 possible colors !467 reds , 467 greens , 467 blues" in the 45 bit &'( color model. In the &'( color model, colors are represented by varying intensities of red, green and blue light. The intensity of each of the red, green and blue components are represented on a scale from : to 466 with : being the least intensity !no light emitted" to 466 !ma,imum intensity". .or e,ample in the above &'( chart the magenta color would be &1466 '1: (1466. (lack would be &1: '1: (1: !a total absence of light".

The &'( color model is additive in the sense that the three light beam are added together, and their light spectra add, wavelength for wavelength, to make the final color;s spectrum.<ero intensity for each component gives the darkest color !no light, considered the black", and full intensity of each gives a white= the quality of this white depends on the nature of the primary light sources, but if they are properly balanced, the result is a neutral white matching the system;swhite point. 2hen the intensities for all the components are the same, the result is a shade of gray, darker or lighter depending on the intensity. 2hen the intensities are different, the result is a colori#ed hue, more or less saturated depending on the difference of the strongest and weakest of the intensities of the primary colors employed. 2hen one of the components has the strongest intensity, the color is a hue near this primary color !reddish, greenish, or bluish", and when two components have the same strongest intensity, then the color is a hue of a secondary color !a shade of cyan, magenta, or yellow". A secondary color is formed by the sum of two primary colors of e>ual intensity: cyan is green0blue, magenta is red0blue, and yellow is red0green. $very secondary color is the complement of one primary color= when a primary and its complementary secondary color are added together, the result is white: cyan complements red, magenta complements green, and yellow complements blue. To see how different &'( components combine together, here is a selected repertoire of colors and their respective relative intensities for each of the red, green, and blue components. $very slider ranges from : to 466. A color in the &'( color model is described by indicating how much of each of the red, green, and blue is included. The color is e,pressed as an &'( triplet ! r,g,b", each component of which can vary from #ero to a defined ma,imum value. If all the components are at #ero the result is black= if all are at ma,imum, the result is the brightest representable white. These ranges may be quanti ied in se!eral di erent ways"

.rom : to 8, with any fractional value in between. This representation is used in theoretical analyses, and in systems that use floating point representations. $ach color component value can also be written as a percentage, from :? to 8::?. In computing, the component values are often stored as integer numbers in the range : to 466, the range that a single @ bit byte can offer !by encoding 467 distinct values".

Aigh end digital image e>uipment can deal with the integer range : to 76,6B6 for each primary color, by employing 87 bit words instead of @ bit bytes. #otation Arithmetic Cercentage Digital @ bit per channel RGB tri$let !8.:, :.:, :.:" !8::?, :?, :?" !466, :, :"

Digital 87 bit per channel

!766B6, :, :"

The &'( color model mapped to a cube. The hori#ontal , a,is as red values increasing to the left, y a,is as blue increasing to the lower right and the vertical # a,is as green increasing towards the top. The origin, black, is hidden behind the cube. All colors are obtained by combining these three colors. This model can be thought as a cube, where B non ad-acent and perpendicular corners are &, ' and (, like in the following figure:

&'( Color Space. The colors with a C are the primary colors. The dashed line indicates where to find the grays, going from !:,:,:" to !466,466,466". As can be seen, &'( is an additive color model, since the combination of green, red and blue gives white. This is the color model that is most commonly used in computer graphics, since it matches the way the color is stored in video memory.

CMYK Color Model

C)*+ !short for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key !black", is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, also used to describe the printing process itself. Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer and press run, ink is typically applied in the order of the abbreviation. The C)*+ model works by partially or entirely masking certain colors on the typically white background !that is, absorbing particular wavelengths of light". Such a model is called subtractive because inks EsubtractF brightness from white. The C)*+ printing method is also known as %four color process%. All of the colors in the printable portion of the color spectrum can be achieved by overlapping %tints% of cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. A tint is a screen of tiny dots appearing as a percentage of a solid color.

2hen various tints of the four colors are printed in overlapping patterns it gives the illusion of continuous tones like a photograph: In the C)*+ color model, colors are represented as percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. .or e,ample in the above C)*+ chart the red color is composed of 85? cyan, 8::? magenta, GG? yellow and B? black. 2hite would be :? cyan, :? magenta, :? yellow .It is the substractive counterpart of &'(. If you look at the &'( color model, you will notice that if you take out the primary colors and the white and black !which are not colors", you get the C*) triple. &'( and C*) are complementary= what is a secondary color in &'( is a primary color in C*).

Due to this, transforming from &'( to C*) and back is very simple:

This color model is used in the printing industry with a variation known as C*)+ !Cyan )agenta *ellow (lack". This is due to the fact that is very difficult !and e,pensive" to obtain a pure black combining cyan, yellow and magenta pigments, so a black pigment is added. It is important to choose the right color model for the -ob. The main purpose of the &'( color model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers though it has also been used in conventional photography. If your images will be printed, then convert them to C)*+ and manually bring them into gamut before printing. If your images are to be displayed on a computer, then make sure you use &'( color so the full gamut will be available for display. (ecause both models can be available at the same time while using an application, it is easy to make a mistake and choose the wrong palette or set of color swatches. Hne can retain out of gamut areas in C)*+ images and leave it to the computer to bring the colors into gamut at printing time. Aowever this re>uires the computer to make the conversion from &'( to C)*+ and this doesn;t always work out as well as one might e,pect. Conversion between color models is not always a good idea.

(ecause of this fact, you want to scan or shoot images using the appropriate color model for their primary purpose. If the images will be used primarily for print then use C)*+. If they will be used primarily for screen displays, then use &'(. *ou can always convert from &'( to C)*+ but it is best not to. If you can afford the time, money and disk space to scan or shoot both versions of an image where both are needed, then this is the best solution. This is especially true if you will be using the same images for both printed material and the web. A little planning can go a long way here.

HS%& and HLS Color Models

The AIS !hue, lightness, saturation" and ASJ !hue, saturation, value" color models were developed to be more EintuitiveF in manipulating with color and were designed to appro,imate the way humans perceive and interpret color. Hue defines the color itself. The values for the hue a,is vary from : to B7: beginning and ending with red and running through green, blue and all intermediary colors. Saturation indicates the degree to which the hue differs from a neutral gray. The values run from :, which means no color saturation, to 8, which is the fullest saturation of a given hue at a given illumination. Intensity component lightness !AIS" or value !ASJ", indicates the illumination level. (oth vary from : !black, no light" to 8 !white, full illumination". The difference between the two is that ma,imum saturation of hue !S18" is at value J18 !full illumination" in the ASJ color model, and at lightness I1:.6 in the AIS color model. The ASJ color space is essentially a cylinder, but usually it is represented as a cone or he,agonal cone !he,cone" as shown in the .igure %ASJ Solid%, because the he,cone defines the subset of the ASJ space with valid &'( values. The value J is the vertical a,is, and the verte, J1: corresponds to black color. Similarly, a color solid, or BD representation, of the AIS model is a double he,cone with lightness as the a,is, and the verte, of the second he,cone corresponding to white. (oth color models have intensity component decoupled from the color information. The ASJ color space yields a greater dynamic range of saturation. Conversions from &'(ToASJK&'(ToASJ and vice versa in Intel ICC are performed in accordance with the respective pseudocode algorithms given in the descriptions of corresponding conversion functions. HS% Color Model The ASJ Color )odel stands for the Aue, Saturation, and Jalue based on the artists !Tint, Shade, and Tone". The coordinate system in a he,acone

Aere is a view of the ASJ color model from the side. The a,is has been rotated 8@: degrees so that the magenta is pointing to the left. HLS Color Model The AIS color model stands for hue, lightness and saturation

Aere is a cross section view of the AIS Color model.