This chapter gives information on what colorspaces are, which colorspaces chalk offers, and what you should keep in mind when using them.
In short, a colorspace is a way to represent colors by specifying a number of parameters. As parameters, one can choose for example the amounts of red, green and blue light needed for the color. This results in the commonly known RGB colorspace. One can visualize this as a three-dimensional space, with each of the red, green, and blue light components being an axis in the colorspace. A color then corresponds to a certain point in this colorspace, defined by its coordinates on the three axes.
To be more precise, a colorspace is a combination of a color model (indicating which axes are present) and a mapping function (indicating which values correspond to which colors).
Not every color can be represented in every colorspace. Some colorspaces define more, or different, colors than others. The set of colors that can be represented in a certain colorspace is called its gamut. Because gamuts can differ widely, it is not guaranteed that images in a certain colorspace can be converted to another colorspace without having to substitute certain colors for others, even if they are based on the same color model.
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