Step 2: Color Management
8
Digital Photo Print Guide
Color space
Our eyes can only perceive the radiation of the visible spectrum, also called visible light (See diagram
below). Computers, monitors, printers, scanners, and other devices can reproduce colors in this visible
spectrum.
Because each device has its own feature for reproducing colors, it can only reproduce colors in its gamut.
The range of colors that the device can reproduce is called the device's color space.
No device can reproduce all of the colors in the visible spectrum, but the wider the color space is, the
more colors the device can reproduce.
Computers or peripheral devices have used sRGB or Adobe RGB, which typifies the color spaces and
complies with monitor characteristics.
If you want to exchange photo data between devices, for example if you want to load a photo taken with
a digital camera into your computer and print it, it is important to match the color spaces.
If you print a photo with the Adobe RGB color space using the sRGB color space setting in the driver or
print a photo with the sRGB color space using the Adobe RGB color space setting in the driver, the wrong
color information is used and the color of the printed photo will differ from the original color of the
photo.
Visible spectrum
Adobe RGB
sRGB
