scRGB

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (January 2007)

scRGB is a wide color gamut RGB (Red Green Blue) color space created by Microsoft and HP that uses the same color primaries and white/black points as the sRGB color space but allows coordinates below zero and greater than one. This enables scRGB to encompass the entire CIE 1931 color space while maintaining simplicity and backward compatibility with sRGB for programmers who may not be familiar with the nuances of color management. The cost of maintaining compatibility with sRGB is that approximately 80% of the scRGB color space consists of imaginary colors.

Two encodings are defined for the individual primaries: a linear 16 bit encoding and a nonlinear 12 bit encoding. The 16 bit linear encoding requires a total of 48 bits per pixel or 64 bits if a fourth alpha channel is included. A working draft of this standard was formerly known as sRGB64. The two encodings have a similar dynamic range which is significantly larger than the 8 bit nonlinear sRGB encoding but inferior to that of some other high dynamic range formats such as OpenEXR.

The first implementation of scRGB was the GDI+ API in Windows Vista. At WinHEC 2008 Microsoft announced that Windows 7 would support 48-bit scRGB (which for HDMI can be converted and output as xvYCC). The components in Windows 7 that support 48-bit scRGB are Direct3D, the Windows Imaging Component, and the Windows Color System and they will support it in both full screen exclusive mode and in video overlays.^[1][2]

[edit] References

1. ^ "WinHEC 2008 GRA-583: Display Technologies". Microsoft. 2008-11-06. http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/E/6/5E66B27B-988B-4F50-AF3A-C2FF1E62180F/GRA-T583_WH08.pptx. Retrieved on 2008-12-06. 
2. ^ "Windows 7 High Color Support". Softpedia. 2008-11-26. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-7-High-Color-Support-98741.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-12-06. 

[edit] External links

• The standard IEC 61966-2-2
• Annex B: Non-linear encoding for scRGB : scRGB-nl
• A working draft of IEC 61966-2-2 is available online.
• ExtremeTech: Defining scRGB

v • d • e Color space List of color spaces · Color models CIE XYZ · L*a*b* · L*u*v* · Yuv · U*V*W* RGB color spaces · sRGB · Adobe · Adobe Wide Gamut · ProPhoto · scRGB YUV YUV (PAL) · YDbDr (SECAM) · YIQ (NTSC) · YCbCr · YPbPr · xvYCC Other LMS · HSL, HSV · CMYK · Hexachrome · RYB · Munsell · NCS · Pantone · RAL OSA-UCS · Coloroid · RG · Ostwald · DIN · PCCS · ABC · DCA · JIS Z8102 · ISCC-NBS Imaginary color See color vision for the vision capacities of organisms or machines.