Working With Color; About Color Modes And Models (Photoshop) - Adobe PHOTOSHOP 6.0 Manual

Chapter 3: Working with Color
F amiliarity with color theory and termi-
nology can help you understand how color
is measured and how Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe ImageReady use this information to
define, display, and print color values.
After you determine the appropriate color mode
for your image, you can apply colors and make
color and tonal adjustments.
About color modes and models
(Photoshop)
A color mode determines the color model used to
display and print images. Photoshop bases its
color modes on established models for describing
and reproducing color. Common models include
HSB (hue, saturation, brightness); RGB (red,
green, blue); CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow,
black); and CIE L*a*b*. Photoshop also includes
modes for specialized color output such as
Indexed Color and Duotone. ImageReady uses
RGB mode to work with images.
In addition to determining the number of colors
that can be displayed in an image, color modes
affect the number of channels and the file size of
an image.
You can set up the Info palette so that you can
select any tool, position the pointer over any
part of an image, and determine the color value
under the pointer. You can customize the Info palette
and color samplers to express color values using HSB,
RGB, CMYK, Lab, or Grayscale modes without
changing the mode of the image itself. (See the
procedure to change Info palette options in "Using
the Info palette" on page 63.)
For more information, see "Seeing the
color values of pixels (Photoshop)" in
online Help.
HSB model
Based on the human perception of color, the HSB
model describes three fundamental characteristics
of color:
Hue is the color reflected from or transmitted
•
through an object. It is measured as a location on
the standard color wheel, expressed as a degree
between 0° and 360°. In common use, hue is
identified by the name of the color such as red,
orange, or green.
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