Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

HUMAN VISION AND COLOR GAMUTS

The human eye sees more colors than machines can reproduce. The term gamutis used to

describe all the colors that a particular machine (a monitor or an inkjet printer, for example)

can reproduce. The entire shaded area represents the human “color space” (gamut), all the

colors the eye can see (see Figure 20.6). The area inside the line represents the colors that a

computer monitor can reproduce.

298 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TODIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

FIGURE 20.6

Entire color

space/gamut.

Here, the area inside the line shows the gamut that an inkjet printer can reproduce with

CMYK inks (see Figure 20.7).

FIGURE 20.7

Gamut with

CMYK inks.

Here, the area inside the line shows the gamut that the CMYK inks used in offset printing

can reproduce (see Figure 20.8).