Colour Spaces
A colour space is a way of representing the colours in an image. Several exist, and each one has its own uses. Some of the most commonly known include:
- RGB: The 'traditional' red, green and blue used by physicists. RGB uses additive colour mixing as happens in electromagnetics, with red and green combining to make yellow, green and blue making cyan (light blue) and blue and red making magenta (pink).
- CMYK: Cyan, magenta, yellow and black. CMYK uses subtractive colour mixing, and is found in printers. Whereas light can be combined to make the colours above, the dyes/inks in printers absorb light and so CMYK was designed to work backwards, making colours darker as they are combined.
- HSV: A model based on the hue, saturation and brightness of colours.
- CIELAB and CIEXYZ: A reference standard, this is the most accurate colour space known, but is too complex for everyday use.
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