Re: Gamuts: Wide vs Smooth
Re: Gamuts: Wide vs Smooth
- Subject: Re: Gamuts: Wide vs Smooth
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 13:55:20 EST
In a message dated 10/28/01 10:35:12 AM, email@hidden writes:
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It seems that all of the discussion concerning gamut concentrate on
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the clipping or compression required to deal with colors at the
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extremes of the space. Has anyone come across problems dealing with
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colors contained within those outer limits?
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Example: can the gamut be too wide to smoothly show extra-gradual
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color transitions - especially when outputting to film recorders?
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Since the total number of discernible colors is limited by the bit
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depth of the pixel (3x8bit = 256x256x256), the gap separating
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neighboring colors would be greater in a Wide Gamut space, and may
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result in banding or posterizing if an especially subtle gradation
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were spread across a large portion of image. This may not be an issue
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with 16bit pixels but most people work in 8bit.
It is definately possible with 8bit/channel film recorders to cause banding
with too large a space. That is why the preliminary work should be done in
highbit, and the conversion to the output profile should be carefully
considered before reducing that high bit file to 8/bits/channel. Done
properly, the result is the best possible eight bits/channel targeted to the
exact gamut of your device. Or simply stick to AdobeRGB, and don't worry
about it!
C. David Tobie
Design Cooperative
email@hidden