A Space Odyssey... of colour!

[btaylor]

Hi all,


Can anyone give me a definitive answer about what is the most appropriate colour space to use. I have been told that Adobe RGB is the industry standard but a recent thread on these forums has swayed me.


I am primarily interested in making sure that what I get printed will look exactly the same as what I see on screen.


I use a Spyder 3 expresshardware calibrator with a Dell u2401 monitor - it's an IPS panel so calibrates/ displays colours well. I apply the .icc colour profile it generates and set CS4 etc to use adobe colour space - is this the right way to do things? I'm a little confused.


Thanks in advance,


Ben

[Sean Setters]

I'm interested to see the replies on this one.

[Mark Elberson]

I think Madison is the resident expert on color spaces / management so hopefully he'll reply. I believe that you are certainly on the right track though with the combination of an IPS Monitor and a Color Calibrator. That should give you an accurate representation on your screen of what your print will look like.


As far as color space goes...there have been a few threads on here in the past. AdobeRGB has a wider gamut than sRGB which is why many think it's better. There are a few factors to consider when choosing your color space.


1) Your monitor...does your monitor have the ability to display the wider gamut of the AdobeRGB color space?
2) Print or Web...most (if not all) web browsers will display your jpeg in the sRGB color space because that's all they can do.
3) Print profile...whether it's your own printer or one at the lab, what color space does it use? I have downloaded the printer profiles for the two machines they use at Costco. They have directions as to what color space to use (sRGB) and what resolution to use (300-330 PPI)


Ok, that's my limited understanding. I am fairly certain that the above statements are facts but I am not sure. I actually just picked up a Spyder3Elite and I could not believe the difference between the before/after comparison it gave me after the initial calibration. It was spot in though. My screen was WAY too blue which made my prints WAY too red. My screen is also WAY too bright which of course made my prints WAY too dark. I calibrated my laptop for giggles as my new iMac arrives tomorrow.

[piiooo]

I do not think there is a simple answer here.


Ihad askedsome pros about it and found out that some swear by Adobe RGB and others by sRGB...


I agree with Mark and the factors he mentioned. I would add another one: Can you appreciate the visual difference between Adobe- and sRGB? Adobe RGB is superior by definition but this superiority may not be visible to everyone, or it may not make any difference to the type of photography one does.


My limited understanding is that the color space should be dictated by the printing method. Owners of photo printers are in most control here because they are able to set their cameras, computers and printers to either sRGBor Adobe RGB. I do not own such a printer and all labs I work with use sRGB, so I keep it simple (gosh, this sounds familiar []) and set my camera's and computer's color space to sRGB.


I am interested to see if anyone here can demonstrate practical superiority (or lack of it) of AdobeRGB over sRGB.

[neuroanatomist]

My take is that it depends entirely on the final 'destination' of the image(s). Your camera actually captures a significantly wider color gamut than even Adobe RGB - actually fairly close to the CIE LAB color space (the horseshoe-shaped swath of colors that is a mathematical represantation of human color perception, and that you usually see as the background for all the other color space diagrammatic representations). The ProPhoto RGB color space is the widest gamut commonly used in image processing. By the numbers, sRGB covers ~35% of the LAB color space, Adobe RGB covers ~50% of it, and ProPhoto RGB covers ~90% of it.


Computer monitors (web display) generally use sRGB (which was developed for monitors, primarily). sRGB is also the color space used by the printers in most photo labs that print directly on photographic paper. Mosthome injket printers also use the sRGB color space (presumably to offer the best color match for typical users, who don't calibrate their displays). 'Device-aware' software will see most printers as RGB devices (even thoughconsumer inkjet printers still use CMYK-like inks, they are calibrated for sRGB).


Adobe RGB is a wider gamut that commercial photo labs and typical home printers cannot reproduce. That wider gamut is meant to encompass the standard CMYK reproduction process. I use Adobe RGB for images in my scientific figures that are published in print journals - the typical format requirements are 600 dpi TIF images in CMYK format, because the journals are printed using offset printing (same method used by magazines). High-end inkjets can reproduce a wider gamut than sRGB, and in some cases (like Canon's PROGRAF series that print using 8-12 ink colors) they can actually reproduce a wider gamut than Adobe RGB.


Very high-end monitors (the high end of the Eizo range) can display pretty much the full gamut of Adobe RGB. No monitor can come close to displaying the ProPhoto RGB space.


In practice, the bottom line is that for most photographers sRGB is the color space to use. The exceptions would be if you areprinting to a pro-level inkjet printer (you'd want Adobe RGB, unless you have a printer and software - and printer drivers - that support an even wider gamut, e.g. ProPhoto RGB),or if you'reworking with a publisher with different requirements (in which case, you'd adhere to those requirements).

[Sheiky]

I totally agree with what John said.

I have been told that Adobe RGB is the industry standard

Correct for designing companies, serious printwork etc, but not for most commercial photo-printers. Perhaps they could do it if you'd ask them, but normal output for printing photos is done with sRGB. It also gives the best result. If you'd send an adobeRGB file and an sRGBfile to print at a normal photo-printer, you'd see that the sRGB version comes out better. I've done quite some testing before I calibrated my monitor to see where the problem was [:P]


So my advice for most "normal users (just like me)" is just to stick with the sRGB and try out some prints with different settings at your favorite printing-service. I was testing with 8 files or something the last time I did that. All the same image, with variables of: sRGB vs adobeRGB, with or without auto-adjustment, even with or without metadata(to trick the auto-adjustment) and combinations of them. It only cost me like 2 euro, say 2.5 dollar so it's worth trying []


Good luck!

[btaylor]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I guess the best way to go about things will be to contact the company who does my prints and see which colour space they use and switch to that.


I do some corporate shots for work throughthe underground mine and concentrators etc, I know they use Adobe RBG for printing our sustainability reports and monthly magazines they send outso I use Adobe RGB there and haven't reallyhad a need/ reason to change it.


At the moment my prints come out pretty damn close- some slight variations in the reds but nothing that's concerned me too much.


I'll put this advice to good use though - thanks again.


Ben.