Glossary 205you see on your monitor to the color from any output device,
such as a printer, so that what you see on the screen is what you
get as output. You might think of this as the last step in the
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) process.
CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. For magazine
reproduction, an image is separated into varying percentages of
these four colors, which is why CMYK fi lm output is called
separations. Ink-jet printers also use CMYK pigments and dyes
to produce photographic-quality prints.
Color depth Sometimes called “bit depth.” Measures the
number of bits of information that a pixel can store and ulti-
mately determines how many colors can be displayed at one
time on your monitor. Color depth is also used to describe the
specifi cations of devices such as scanners and digital cameras,
as well as a characteristic of an image fi le.
ColorSync Apple’s color-management system (CMS).
ColorSync uses a reference color space based on the way humans
see colors. The heart of the system is a set of device profi les that
describe what color in that reference space corresponds to the
RGB or CMYK values sent to an output device. ColorSync can
predict the color you’ll see when you send a set of RGB values
to a monitor, or CMYK values to a printer, and will automati-
cally adjust those values so you’ll see the same color on both
devices—or as close as possible within the limits of the
devices.
Compression Method of removing unneeded data to make a
fi le smaller without losing any critical data—or, in the case of a
photographic fi le, image quality.
CPU Central processing unit. Powers your computer, although
many cameras and lenses also have built-in CPU chips. Digital
imagers need to have enough computing power to handle the
kind, and especially size, of the images they capture. Wildlife
or sports photography may be possible with a 50mm lens, but
the photographic experience will be much better—and less
frustrating—when armed with a 400 or 800mm lens. Similarly,
choosing the right computer is fi rst a matter of fi nding one with
enough power to process digital images fast enough to minimize
frustration, and then to expedite creativity by processing that
data as quickly as possible.
CPXe Common Picture eXchange Environment. A new stan-
dard for distributing photos over the Internet for photofi nishing.
Created by a consortium of companies including Eastman Kodak,
Fujifi lm, Hewlett-Packard, and others.
Device resolution Number of dots per inch (dpi) that a com-
puter device, such as a monitor or printer, can produce.