System and method for color space conversion

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention is directed to a system and method for converting a color from a first color space to a second color space through the use of an extended second color space.
The extended second color space is extended (i.
e.
, has increased valid component ranges) from the second color space so that all valid colors from the first color space can be converted to the extended second color space and represented as valid colors therein.
A feature of the present invention is that operations (such as graphics imaging operations) subsequent to the conversion of the color to the extended second color space are not performed on colors having conversion artifacts.
Conversion artifacts are the result of adjusting or forcing an invalid color into the second color space.
The result is that colors with conversion artifacts are only approximations of the original color.
The present invention allows the invalid color in the second color space to be represented as a valid color in the extended color space.
Thus, no approximation is made to result in a conversion artifact.
Subsequent operations performed on colors converted according to the present invention are performed on the original color rather than an approximation to the original color.
The result is a truer representation of the original color after the conversion and subsequent operations.
Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.