Gamut
Also called: color space or color range
Gamut is another word for a collection of colors. Usually, gamut refers to the total range of possible colors that a device can display or perceive. In another sense, the term refers to the palette of unique colors found in a given digital image.
On the one hand, the gamut is bounded and prescribed by technical limitations. Not every device can actually produce every theoretically possible hue. The range and amount of colors that can be displayed or perceived, or gamut, is a technical property of monitors, printers, cameras and other devices that produce or process images.
On the other hand, gamut is determined by how a color space is classified and described. In color coding systems such as RGB and CMYK, the available colors are determined by the system's gamut and possible variations. Within a color space, the colors present are usually expressed either two-dimensionally (hue/warmth and saturation) or three-dimensionally (such as proportion of the colors red, green and blue).
When a specific color hue does not exist in a particular color system, then this color is also called "out of gamut." An example of this is pure red: a color that does exist in the RGB system, but cannot be represented as a CMYK color.
Additive and subtractive colors
Additive color mixing is used in displays, among other things. Here, the degree to which different axes are present determines the color displayed. The basic color is black. When all colors are maximally represented, white arises.
Within subtractive color mixing, on the contrary, there is absorption of certain colors of light. The basic color is white. Complete mixing of all ingredients yields (approximately) black. "Subtraction" or filtering of certain colors determines the color of the light that is reflected or emitted. An example of this is CMYK, in which another fourth component is added to make "pure" black.
When expressing colors in hue/warmth and saturation, intensity, the third dimension, is usually secondary. It is strongly determined in print by the amount of light present and in monitors by the brightness setting of the monitor.
