Color space questions

[scubarob639]

Why is working in a larger color space like AdobeRGB benificial?  Looking at the profiles of some popular printers, it appears their color gamuts are much smaller then even sRGB.  Am I missing something?  I was looking at the 3D interactive models in the Dry Creek website.  Are their any printer profiles which have a color gamut as large as Adobe RGB?  It appears the choke point for color space is the printer. Is that right?

Rob

[jani]

Why is working in a larger color space like AdobeRGB benificial?  Looking at the profiles of some popular printers, it appears their color gamuts are much smaller then even sRGB.  Am I missing something?  I was looking at the 3D interactive models in the Dry Creek website.  Are their any printer profiles which have a color gamut as large as Adobe RGB?  It appears the choke point for color space is the printer. Is that right?

I think you need to read this article by Michael, and perhaps search the forum for posts including the text "prophoto" for the extensive discussions we've already had on the subject.

But for now, I think Michael's article will suffice.

[digitaldog]

Are their any printer profiles which have a color gamut as large as Adobe RGB?  It appears the choke point for color space is the printer. Is that right?
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There are many. My Epson 2400 has colors that fall outside Adobe RGB (1998) gamut. You really need a good 3D profile gamut viewer to spin both suckers. Then you’ll see some areas that fall outside Adobe RGB (1998). While the bulk of the profile may fall within Adobe RGB (1998) keep in mind ANY colors, (mostly saturated colors like green and yellow in this example) that falls outside Adobe RGB (1998) is considered out of gamut. You can’t print those colors.

[Mark D Segal]

My understanding of this - and perhaps this is what Andrew is getting at - the SHAPE of the colour space is as important as its size. The shape of the gamut the printer can reproduce is different from the shape of ARGB98. Hence if you confine yourself to ARGB98 you will miss capturing some colours that the printer could otherwise reproduce. Therefore using a colour space for the file that is for all colours larger than the printer colour space ensures that you will serve-up to the printer every colour it can reproduce.

There is, however, a large literature on the web, particularly in Dan Margulis' Color Theory List, debating the merits of using these wide colour spaces. From my reading of this extensive and arcane debate, I believe the centerweight of these arguments seem to still favour using the larger colour spaces, but being aware that under some conditions it may be necessary to "tame" certain hues that go way out of gamut. Andrew please chime in if I got this right (or wrong)..........................