1. A method for reducing halo artifacts during spatially dependent gamut mapping of a color image, comprising: computing a function u&equals;project c (ƒ), wherein f represents the color image, and C is a gamut volume; computing a monotone increasing function {overscore (ƒ)}&equals;S(ƒ) such that the derivative of S is less than unity for high values of ƒ; and determining a function g(x,y) that minimizes the functional 6 &Integral; Ω &it; ( k * ( u - g ) ) 2 &it; &it; &dd; x &it; &dd; y + α &it; &Integral; Ω &it; ( &Del; ( k * ( f ~ - g ) ) ) 2 &it; &it; &dd; x &it; &dd; y &it;, subject to ƒ&egr;C.