Abstract: A system for processing color information is based on carrying with color data, an indicator of the color space in which the data is represented. In this manner, the system is enabled to process color data from a variety of sources independent of the color space of the sources, because it is able to respond to the color space of a particular color value perform the necessary transformations to operate within any other arbitrary color and color space combination. The system provides for manipulating or combining colors independent of the source and destination color spaces. Also, the system operates on a per color component basis in user selected working color space, independent of the color space of the input or destination devices.