A
color space is a specific organization of
colors. In combination with physical device profiling, it allows for reproducible representations of color, in both
analog and
digital representations. A color space may be arbitrary, with particular colors assigned to a set of physical color swatches and corresponding assigned names or numbers such as with the
Pantone system, or structured mathematically, as with
Adobe RGB or
sRGB. A
color model is an abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as
tuples of numbers (e.g. triples in
RGB or quadruples in
CMYK); however, a color model with no associated mapping function to an
absolute color space is a more or less arbitrary color system with no connection to any globally understood system of color interpretation. Adding a specific mapping function between a color model and a reference color space establishes within the reference color space a definite "footprint", known as a
gamut, and for a given color model this defines a color space. For example, Adobe RGB and sRGB are two different absolute color spaces, both based on the RGB color model. When defining a color space, the usual reference standard is the
CIELAB or
CIEXYZ color spaces, which were specifically designed to encompass all colors the average human can see.
