In color reproduction, including computer graphics and
photography, the gamut, or color gamut (pron.: //), is a certain
complete subset of colors. The most common usage refers to the
subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given
circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a certain
output device. Another sense, less frequently used but not less
correct, refers to the complete set of colors found within an
image at a given time. In this context, digitizing a photograph,
converting a digitized image to a different color space, or
outputting it to a given medium using a certain output device
generally alters its gamut, in the sense that some of the colors
in the original are lost in the process. The term gamut was
adopted from the field of music, where it means the set of
pitches of which musical melodies are composed; Shakespeare's
use of the term in The Taming of the Shrew is sometimes
attributed to the author/musician Thomas Morley. In the 1850s,
the term was applied to a range of