Last Updated on May 11, 2024 by Clark Omholt
This is an interesting topic in that numeric guidance is provided by standards bodies, but ultimately it’s a pretty subjective decision – what’s best for you in your viewing environment?
Brightness vs Luminance
It might be useful to start off by noting the difference between brightness and luminance:
- Brightness is a setting on your display that you are able to change, and it ranges from 0 and 100.
- Luminance is a measure of your display’s brightness. This can be measured by an instrument, like a colorimeter, and the units of luminance are candelas / meter-squared (also known as NITS).
What’s Best for Your Viewing Environment?
A properly configured display will be the brightest object in your viewing environment. ISO 3664:2009 recommends a luminance of 80-120 NITS in a darkened or semi-darkeded ambient viewing environment of around 80 lux. In this environment, a display calibrated to 120 NITS will achieve an ideal contrast ratio of 287:1.
However, most color professionals do not work in a darkened environment and will thus prefer a higher luminance. ISO has a recommendation for a “daylight” ambient lighting environment of 160 NITS. Still, even that might not be bright enough for many viewing environments. Of course, we recognize most people don’t have fancy instruments to measure luminance or lux, in which case these numbers don’t have a lot of meaning.
How We Can Help
TruHu also recognizes the variety of viewing environments people use and thus trusts your eyes to find the right level of brightness and luminance for your viewing environment. Most modern-era displays can achieve a luminance of 250+ NITs when new, though this drops over time.
We do not recommend setting your brightness to 100, as this can cause the backlight to age quickly. A brightness setting of 50 on a new display or 75 on one that’s a few years old should usually be fine.
Pro Tip on Contrast for TruHu Users:
Do not change the contrast from your display’s default settings. This will be handled by TruHu’s gamma function.
