Topic: How many colours in the CMYK colour spectrum?

Anonymous 9d9df354032141f6d9a0291dbd520546 started this discussion 3 months (2008-08-29 07:57:55 UTC) ago:

I know RGB colour spectrum have around 16.8 million different colours. But I cannot find anything on how much the CMYK colour spectrum have got. Anyone knows or can find any of this?
I do know that the CMYK colour spectrum have less colours than the RGB, around 5-6 million, but the exact number is nowhere to be found.

Anonymous c637152e26d181aeec3e8b3655e12f2c replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 16:30:05 UTC) ago, 9 hours later (#55,510):

There are unlimited colors in both RGB and CMYK

Anonymous 9d9df354032141f6d9a0291dbd520546 (OP) replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 17:46:21 UTC) ago, 1 hour later (#55,527):

@55,510

No there is not. Now stop trolling.

Anonymous c637152e26d181aeec3e8b3655e12f2c replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 18:25:28 UTC) ago, 39 minutes later (#55,539):

@55,527

I am not trolling, Please explain what is wrong with my answer.
There exists more colors than is normaly shown on your computer screen you know.

RGB 16 bit per channel (3) channels * 16 = 48 248 = 281.5 trillion
CMYK 16 bit per channel (4) channels * 16 = 64 264 = 18,446.7 trillion

Anonymous 9d9df354032141f6d9a0291dbd520546 (OP) replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 19:25:19 UTC) ago, 60 minutes later (#55,551):

@55,539

I am not talking about what you see, I am talking about the printing colours CMYK.

Even though CMYK is consistent of 4 colours - Cyan, magenta, yellow and black, you cannot make as much colours as RGB, therefore there is more RGB colours than CMYK. And not as you write, in theory maybe, but in praxis, no.

Anonymous 9d9df354032141f6d9a0291dbd520546 (OP) replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 19:41:18 UTC) ago, 16 minutes later (#55,559):

@55,539

And by the way…

> RGB 16 bit per channel (3) channels * 16 = 48 248 = 281.5 trillion
256x256x256 = 16.777.216 RGB Colours.

Anonymous c637152e26d181aeec3e8b3655e12f2c replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 19:45:32 UTC) ago, 4 minutes later (#55,561):

@55,559

RGB - 8 bit per channel - 3 channels * 8 = 24 - 2^24 = 16,777,216 colors

Anonymous c637152e26d181aeec3e8b3655e12f2c replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 20:50:56 UTC) ago, 1 hour later (#55,572):

I should probably have explaind this better:

Each channel(color) is saved in a picture using bits. 1-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit…etc (Bits Per Pixel)

RGB has 3 colors (channels)

So a picture with 8-bit RGB colors is: 3-channels*8-bit = 24-bit image
A 24-bit image has 2^24 colors = 16,777,216 colors

A picture with 16-bit RGB colors is: 3-channels*16-bit = 48-bit image
A 48-bit image has 2^48 colors = 281.5 trillion colors

CMYK has 4 colors (channels)

So a picture with 8-bit CMYK colors is: 4_channels*8-bit = 32-bit image
A 32-bit image has 2^32 colors = 4.3 billion colors

A picture with 16-bit CMYK colors is: 4_channels*16-bit = 64-bit image
A 64-bit image has 2^64 colors = 18,446.7 trillion colors

Does it make sense now?

Anonymous c3d1ccb402f11b5493be8282d4b0a9b2 replied with this 3 months (2008-08-29 22:03:34 UTC) ago, 1 hour later (#55,581):

My guess is that the exact number of colors you can use for print varies depending on the quality of your printer/ink, so an exact number isn't given.

The calculation for RGB color is simple, since it's viewed on a monitor, and we can empirically gauge its output. We can't determine how many colors are printed on a piece of paper anywhere near as easily. It's very subjective.

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Topic: How many colours in the CMYK colour spectrum?