Colour spaces: perceptual, historical and applicational background

Abstract

In this paper we present an overview of colour spaces used in electrical engineering and image processing. We stress the importance of the perceptual, historical and applicational background that led to a colour space. The colour spaces presented are : RGB, opponent-colours spaces, phenomenal colour spaces, CMY, CMYK, TV colour spaces (YUV and YIQ), PhotoYCC, CIE XYZ, Lab and Luv colour spaces. Keywords—colour spaces, RGB, HSV, CIE I. I NTRODUCTION The choice of the colour space can be a very important de- cision which can dramatically influence the results of the pro- cessing. The knowledge of various colour spaces can ease the choice of the appropriate colour space. The aim of this paper is to present various colour spaces and their perceptual, historical and applicational background. We believe that the knowledge of the background that led to the definition of a certain colour space makes the difference between knowing a colour spaceand understanding a colour space .