Understanding Colors: Color Gamma
and Color Perception in the Graphic Arts Community
Although pure white light is perceived as colorless, it actually contains all colors in the visible spectrum. When white light hits an object, it selectively blocks some colors and reflects others — only the reflected colors contribute to the viewer's perception of color.
To study color, we need to scientifically define a method of color interpretation. No one system (color model) can reproduce all possible colors in the entire color spectrum. All devices, from your color monitor and scanner to your color printer, are limited as to what colors they are capable of reproducing.
Graphics software is designed to work with images in the RGB (the primary colors of Red, Green and Blue) color space throughout the editing process. RGB is an additive color involves light emitted directly from an illuminant which overlaps to create colors model. Your color monitor simulates an additive color model. Since the colors cannot overlap one another it is not an actual additive color model.
Commercial printers use process color, or CMYK Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black (Key) and PMS Pantone Matching System color spaces. As subtractive color models, colors are subtracting (that is, absorbing) some wavelengths of light and reflecting the others much like a prism.
A monitor is not capable of making all colors in the color spectrum, but it does have a very wide color space. Some colors on an computer screen can not reproduce in print exactly as they look on a color monitor. This is because the color spaces of CMYK and PMS are smaller than the RGB color space, and some of the RGB colors are out of gamut for the inks that a commercial printer uses.
Color space a system for describing color numerically to determine a color range limitations are one reason that some printing presses can print in more than 4 colors. If the color of your logo contains a certain color that is somewhat out of gamut of the CMYK color space, they can print specific PMS color(s) needed to print the color accurately.
Color gamma is the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as
within a given color space or by a certain output device. The color gamut is the set of all possible colors within a color
system (RGB, CMYK, PMS) that is a portion on the total visible color spectrum. A color that cannot be reproduced within that system is said to be
"out of gamma."
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