Color spaces

Gamut

All available colors within a specific color space.

Color spaces with a high range of colors are referred to as "wide-gamut".

Colors that are out of gamut can be replaced by in-gamut colors using various methods called gamut mapping.

alt text Gamuts outlined on the visible spectrum for Adobe Pro Photo, Display-P3, sRGB, and CMYK color spaces.

How it affects UI design

Wide-gamut color spaces provide a higher range of color.

The wide-gamut color space display-p3 is gaining browser support and used in retina displays.

Colors that are out of gamut can be mapped to the closest approximate color within the supported color space. Most color libraries support gamut mapping.

Sources:

  1. Mark D. Fairchild (2013). Color Appearance Models. 3rd edition. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Pages 357
  2. R.W.G. Hunt (2004). The Reproduction of Colour. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pages 581-582
  3. Gamut. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamut