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Colour Models

The document discusses three common color models: RGB, CMY(K), and HSI. The RGB model represents colors as combinations of red, green, and blue primary colors and is used in color monitors and video cameras. The CMY(K) model uses cyan, magenta, yellow (and black) pigment primaries and is used in color printing. The HSI model represents colors in terms of hue, saturation, and intensity in a way that is more intuitive to humans.

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Krishanu Modak
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520 views5 pages

Colour Models

The document discusses three common color models: RGB, CMY(K), and HSI. The RGB model represents colors as combinations of red, green, and blue primary colors and is used in color monitors and video cameras. The CMY(K) model uses cyan, magenta, yellow (and black) pigment primaries and is used in color printing. The HSI model represents colors in terms of hue, saturation, and intensity in a way that is more intuitive to humans.

Uploaded by

Krishanu Modak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Color Models

The purpose of a color model is to facilitate the specification of colors in some


standard, generally accepted way. In esence, a color model is a specificatin of a
coordinate system and a subspace within that system where each color is represented by
a single point.
In terms of DIP, the hardware-orieted models most commonly used in practice are the
RGB model for color monitors and a broad class of color video cameras; the CMY and
CMYK( cyan magenta, yellow, black) models for color printing; and the HSI model,
which corresponds closely with the way humans describe and interpret color.

I. The RGB Color Model


1. In the RGB model, each color appears in its primary spectral components of red,
green, and blue. This model is based on a Cartesian coordinate system.
2. The color subspace of interest is the cube shown in Fig. 1, in which RGB
primary values are at three corners; the secondary colors cyan, magenta, and
yellow are at three other corners; black is at the origin; and white is at the corner
farthest from the origin.

Fig 1:
Schematic of the RGB color
cube.
Points along the main
diagonal have gray values,
from black at the origin to
white at point (1,1,1).

3. In this model, the gray scale (points of equal RGB values) extends from black to
white along the line joining these two points. The different colors in this model
are points on or inside the cube, and are defined by vectors extending from the
origin.
4. For convenience, the assumption is that all color values have been normalized so
that the cube shown in Fig.1 is the unit cube. That is, all values of R, G, and B are
assumed to be in the range [0,1].
5. The number of bits used to represent each pixel in RGB space is called the pixel
depth. Consider an RGB image in which each of the red, green, and blue images
is an 8-bit image. Under these conditions each RGB color pixel [that is, a triplet of
values (R, G, B)] is said to have a depth of 24 bits (3 image planes times the
number of bits per plane).
6. Forty of the 256 colors (min number of colors that can be reproduced faithfully by
any system) are known to be processed differently by various operating systems,
leaving only 216 colors that are common to most systems.
7. Each of the 216 safe colors is formed from three RGB values as before, but each
value can only be 0,51, 102, 153, 204, or 255. Thus, RGB triplets of these values
give us (6)3 = 216 possible values. It is customary to express thesce values in the
hexagonal number system, as shown in Table below.

II. The CMY and CMYK Color Models


1. We know that cyan, magenta, and yellow are the secondary colors of light or,
alternatively, the primary colors of pigments. For example, when a surface coated
with cyan pigment is illuminated with white light, no red light is reflected from
the surface. That is, cyan subtracts red light from reflected white light, which
itself is composed of equal amounts of red, green, and blue light.
2. Most devices that deposit colored pigments on paper, such as color printers and
copiers, require CMY data input or perform an RGB to CMY conversion
internally. This conversion is performed using the simple operation
where, again, the assumption is that all color values have been normalized to the
range [0, 1].
3. Equation above demonstrates that light reflected from a surface coated with
pure cyan does not contain red (that is,C = 1 - R in the equation). Similarly, pure
magenta does not reflect green, and pure yellow does not reflect blue.
4. Eqn also reveals that RGB values can be obtained easily from a set of CMY
values by subtracting the individual CMY values from 1.
5. Equal amounts of the pigment primaries, cyan, magenta, and yellow should
produce black. In practice, combining these colors for printing produces a muddy-
looking black. So, in order to produce true black (which is the predominant color
in printing), a fourth color, black, is added, giving rise to the CMYK color model.

III. The HSI Color Model


1. When humans view a color object, we describe it by its hue, saturation, and
brightness. Hue is a color attribute that describes a pure color (pure yellow,
orange, or red), whereas saturation gives a measure of the degree to which a pure
color is diluted by white ‘light. Brightness embodies the achromatic notion of
intensity and is one of the key factors in describing color sensation.
2. The HSI (hue, saturation, intensity) color model, decouples the intensity
component from the color-carrying information (hue and saturation) in a color
image. As a result, the HSI model is an ideal tool for developing image processing
algorithms based on color descriptions that are natural and intuitive to humans.
3. We know that, an RGB color image can be viewed as three monochrome
intensity images (representing red, green, and blue), Thus, we should be able to
extract intensity from an RGB image. This becomes rather clear if we take the
color cube and stand it on the black (0, 0, 0) vertex, with the white vertex (1, 1, 1)
directly above it, as shown in Fig. 6.12(a).
4. In order to see how hue can be determined also from a given RGB point,
consider Fig. 6.12(b), which shows a plane defined by three points (black, white,
and cyan). The fact that the black and white points are contained in the plane tells
us that the intensity axis also is contained in the plane.
5. The key point to keep in mind regarding the cube arrangement in Fig. 6.12 and
its corresponding HSI color space is that the HSI space is represented by a vertical
intensity axis and the locus of color points that lie on planes perpendicular to this
axis.
6. As the planes move up and down the intensity axis, the boundaries defined by
the intersection of each plane with the faces of the cube have either a triangular or
hexagonal shape. This can be visualized by looking at the cube down its gray-
scale axis, as shown in Fig.3 (a). In this plane we see that the primary colors are
separated by 120° and the secondary colors are 60° from the primaries.
7. Fig.3 (b) shows the same hexagonal shape and an arbitrary color point (shown as
a dot). The hue of the point is determined by an angle from some reference point.
The saturation (distance from the vertical axis) is the length of the vector from the
origin to the point.
8. The important components of the HSI color space are the vertical intensity axis,
the length of the vector to a color point, and the angle this vector makes with the
red axis. Therefore, HSI planes can be defined is terms of the hexagon, a triangle,
or even a circle, as Figs.3 (c) and (d) show.

(a)
(b) (c) (d)
FIG 3: Hue and saturation in the HSI color model. The dot is an arbitrary color point.
The angle from the red axis gives the hue, and the length of the vector is the saturation.
The intensity of all colors in any of these planes is given by the position of the plane on
the vertical intensity axis.

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