Color spaces (was DEC Colours)

John Lawson jpl15 at panix.com
Tue Nov 16 10:31:42 CST 2004


  A simple thing that I have used to help me out (in my work with cinema 
projection and video editing) is:

   RGB is a *transmissive* specification.  It is used a lot where the light 
from the image is being *generated* by that image...  like a CRT. It 
*makes* the light.

  CMYK is a *reflective* specification.  It is used where light is bounced 
off a colored surface, like a magazine page. As was pointed out, mostly 
used in the printing and graphics arts.

   And there are of course many other flavors and types of specs - and we 
won't get into 'brightness' and all that entails...

   So if you're trying to match paint - a 'reflective' specification would 
be the most accurate, I would think.


  Cheers

John





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