Operation Manual

134
Appendices
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Appendices— Appendix B
Appendix B
Appendix B
Glossary
Glossary
This glossary provides defi nitions of some of the terms used in this manual.
Term Defi nition
Bit depth
The number of bits used to express color, also referred to as color depth. The bit depth determines the amount of color infor-
mation in an image. The greater the bit depth, the larger the number of colors, and the fi ner the gradations, that can be ex-
pressed. Bit depth can be used to refer both to the number of bits per channel and to the combined bit depth for all channels;
thus, for example, an image with a bit depth of eight bits per channel can be said to have a bit depth of twenty-four bits. An
image with a bit depth of one bit has only two colors, typically black and white, with no gradation between the two. See also
Channel.
Black point
The input value below which all input tones are mapped to the minimum output value (by default no color, or black). Any de-
tails darker than the black point will be lost. See also Tone, Tone cur ve.
Channel
The component colors in a given color space. The RGB color space is made up of red, green, and blue channels and a master
channel that combines the three. See also Color space.
CMS See Color management system.
CMYK
A refl ective (subtractive) color model commonly used in printing, which models color using com bi na tions of the three second-
ary colors used in printer’s ink, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Because no com bi na tion of these three inks will create a true black,
blacK ink is also used.
Color
management
system
A method of ensuring consistency of color reproduction between devices such as scanners, monitors, and printers, and be-
tween different computer platforms. In the color management system used in Nikon Capture 3, accurate color reproduction is
ensured through the use of profi les that provide information about the characteristics of the monitor or printer and the color
space used for editing. See also ICC, Profi le.
Color space
A general term encompassing both the model used to defi ne color (for example, CMYK or RGB) and the range, or gamut, of
colors that can be expressed in a given color model. See also CMYK, Gamut, RGB.
Compression
A method for reducing fi le sizes for storage or transmission. Compression algorithms can be divided into “lossless” algorithms,
such as LZW, in which no information is lost when fi les are restored to their original size for display or editing, and “lossy” al-
gorithms, such as JPEG, in which some information is lost when the fi le is restored. See also JPEG, TIFF.