Gamuts

Gamut is the range of colors that can be represented or reproduced by a color system. In color science, the term describes the set of perceptible colors a device, a color space, or a viewing condition can reproduce. A device’s gamut is determined by its color primaries (and white point) and by the medium’s ability to render saturated colors. The boundary of a gamut is often visualized in a chromaticity diagram such as the CIE 1931 xyY.

Color spaces used in digital imaging encode color through a fixed set of primaries. For example, sRGB has a relatively modest gamut suitable for the web; Adobe RGB covers more greens and cyans, and ProPhoto RGB covers an even larger range. Wide-gamut devices and standards include Rec. 2020. Printers, paper, and inks define their own gamuts, which are typically smaller than the corresponding display gamuts and depend on the media’s reflective properties and ink set.

Mapping colors between gamuts is common in color management. When a color falls outside the target gamut, gamut compression or clipping can occur; soft proofing and perceptual or relative colorimetric rendering intents are used to preserve appearance where possible.

Gamut is distinct from perceptual limitations of human vision; it is a property of a system or color space. Understanding gamuts is central to color-managed workflows in photography, cinema, printing, and display calibration, ensuring consistent color appearance across devices.