About
A gamut is the range of colors:
- a device can process,
- or that a color space can define.
The gamut, or color gamut is:
- a certain complete subset of colors.
- or the complete set of colors found within an image at a given time.
In color theory, the gamut of a device or process is that portion of the color space that can be represented, or reproduced.
In the case of a computer display, a gamut is all the colors it can accurately show.
Visualizing a gamut is a bit complicated, but it is slightly similar to the color wheel
A gamut is the area on color wheel surface that represents as far as the device can go in all directions.
Representation
You might see a gamut represented with a diagram such as the below one, where:
- the colored shape is showing what a typical human eye can see,
- the white triangle shows the range of the sRGB color space (as you notice, it’s a lot smaller than what the eye could detect).
Out
When certain colors cannot be expressed within a particular color model, those colors are said to be out of gamut. For example, while pure red can be expressed in the RGB color space, it cannot be expressed in the CMYK color space; pure red is out of gamut in the CMYK color space.