Rendering Intent

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Rendering intents are components of the ICC profile. They allow the user some options in how color transforms, based on different intentions or uses. Because different image input and output instruments have different physical properties, it is not possible to expect good color reproduction to occur merely by always reducing color from one color space to the nearest point on another space. The four rendering intents are:

Contents

Absolute Colorimetric

Absolute Colorimetric tries to reproduce colors scaled to the white point of the source color space. This is mainly used when proofing colors. In other words, use Abs Col when trying to get one printer to look like another printer - including perhaps the darker white of the original (for example if proofing a newsprint.)

Relative Colorimetric

Relative Colorimetric tries to reproduce colors with as little desaturation as possible. Out of gamut colors are moved to the nearest point within gamut. Unlike Abs Col, colors are all scaled to the white point of the destination color space.

Perceptual

With Perceptual, colors are generally desaturated in order to preserve their perceived relationship. This can make for very smooth transitions between colors. This avoids the banding that is possible with Relative Colorimetric, but at the sacrifice of some color saturation.

Saturation

The Saturation rendering intent is similar to Perceptual, except that more saturation is preserved at the expense of hue accuracy.


The most commonly referenced rendering intents are Relative Colorimetric and Perceptual.




See also:
Anatomy of a Profile (ColorNews Article)

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