Representations of colour images in different colour spaces

Abstract

Colour spaces (other terms: colour coordinate systems, colour models) are three-dimensional arrangements of colour sensations. Colours are specified by points in these spaces. The colour spaces presented in this chapter are the most popular in the image processing community. Equations describing transformations between different colourspaces and the reasons for using colour spaces other than RGB are presented. Based on examples from the literature, the applicability of individual colour spaces in image processing systems is discussed. Spaces used in image processing are derived from visual system models (e.g. RGB, opponent colour space, IHS etc.); adopted from technical domains (e.g. colorimetry: XYZ, television: TUV, etc.) or developed especially for image processing (e.g. Ohta space, Kodak Photo YCC space etc.).