{"id":1505,"date":"2020-05-19T13:47:12","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T20:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/?post_type=encyclopedia&#038;p=1505"},"modified":"2023-05-10T13:04:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T20:04:49","slug":"nits","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/","title":{"rendered":"nits"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>What are nits?<\/h3>\n<p>Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there&rsquo;s more:<\/p>\n<p>A nit is a unit of a display&rsquo;s luminance. The SI unit is the candela per square meter (cd\/m<sup>2<\/sup>). One nit is one cd\/m<sup>2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>A candela is the SI unit for luminous intensity and one candela approximately equals the intensity of light emitted from one normal candle. That means a display with a luminance of 300 nits is about as bright as if you packed 300 candles into a square meter.<\/p>\n<h3>What is a good nit rating?<\/h3>\n<p>What can be considered a good nit rating depends heavily on how the display will be used and other features of the selected display.<\/p>\n<p>Many LCDs for indoor use are between 200 and 300 nits. To set some understanding of how bright we&rsquo;re talking about, the max brightness on a phone in 2020 tends to be between 500 and 700 nits. Typically, anything over 500 nits is considered sunlight readable. Of course, many other factors contribute to whether a display is sunlight readable (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/reflective-lcd\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"A reflective LCD depends on having sufficient ambient light to reflect in order to be read. A reflective LCD does not have a backlight and does not make any light on its own. &nbsp; A reflective LCD can be seen well in any lighting situation where you could read text on a paper, they are&hellip;\" class=\"encyclopedia\">reflective<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/transflective-lcd\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"TRANSFLECTIVE is a portmanteau of TRANSmissive and reFLECTIVE. A transflective LCD combines the best features of a reflective LCDs and transmissive LCDs. &nbsp; A transflective LCD will reflect ambient light, allowing it to be visible in normal office light without using a backlight. In bright sunlight, a transflective LCD is still visible and does not&hellip;\" class=\"encyclopedia\">transflective<\/a> polarizers, Blanview technology, etc.), but at around 500 nits, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/backlight\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"A backlight is used behind the LCD glass to allow the LCM to be read in dark conditions. The vast majority of backlights are now LED. Historically there were also EL (electroluminescent) and CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light) backlights, but as LED efficiency has increased and cost has decreased, EL and CCFL backlights have all&hellip;\" class=\"encyclopedia\">backlight<\/a> can overpower the sunlight to make the display readable. For more, read our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/what-makes-an-lcd-sunlight-readable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blog post on what makes a display sunlight readable.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Just like with your phone, a higher brightness display requires more power. A lower nit display with physical shading may be a better choice for some applications than a higher nit display. Further, just like with your phone, high brightness can be extremely unpleasant in dark environments. As such, when determining whether a nit rating is &ldquo;good,&rdquo; consider the application of the display.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, remember that the luminance rating is often determined based on the backlight without the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/lcd\/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. An LCD is composed of two pieces of glass with a thin layer of liquid crystals between the glass layers. When a voltage is applied to the glass, the orientation of the crystals can be changed. This change in the crystal's orientation (called polarization) will make either a dark&hellip;\" class=\"encyclopedia\">LCD<\/a> panel installed. This means the apparent brightness is going to be significantly lower than the brightness listed in the datasheet.<\/p>\n<h3>What is the difference between nits and lumens?<\/h3>\n<p>Nits and lumens measure different characteristics about how light is emitted. Lumens measure luminous flux, also known as the total light output in all directions. Nits measure luminance, which quantifies directional light.<\/p>\n<p>For further information, check out this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiantvisionsystems.com\/sites\/default\/files\/library-documents\/Radiant_INFO_Light-Color-Poster_EN.pdf\">nice poster illustrating different terms about light <\/a>(the second page) created by Radiant Vision Systems.<\/p>\n<h3>How are nits measured?<\/h3>\n<p>To measure the brightness of a display in nits, a photometer or colorimeter is typically used. These instruments measure the amount of light emitted by the display and convert it into units of nits or cd\/m&sup2;.<\/p>\n<p>In general, a higher number of nits indicates a brighter display, which can be useful for viewing content in bright environments or for HDR (High Dynamic Range) content that requires a high level of contrast and brightness. However, it&rsquo;s important to note that a high number of nits alone doesn&rsquo;t necessarily equate to better picture quality, as other factors such as color accuracy, contrast ratio, and viewing angle also play a role in determining the overall visual experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are nits? Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there&#8217;s more: A nit is a unit of a display&#8217;s luminance. The SI unit is the candela per square meter (cd\/m2). One nit is one cd\/m2. A candela is the SI unit for luminous intensity and one candela approximately equals the intensity of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1509,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"class_list":["post-1505","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>nits - Crystalfontz LCD Glossary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"nits : What are nits? Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there&#039;s more: A nit is a unit of a display&#039;s luminance. The SI unit is the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"nits - Crystalfontz LCD Glossary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"nits : What are nits? Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there&#039;s more: A nit is a unit of a display&#039;s luminance. The SI unit is the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crystalfontz LCD Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Crystalfontz-America-Inc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-10T20:04:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/nits.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"282\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@crystalfontz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/\",\"name\":\"nits - Crystalfontz LCD Glossary\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/nits.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-19T20:47:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-10T20:04:49+00:00\",\"description\":\"nits : What are nits? Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there's more: A nit is a unit of a display's luminance. The SI unit is the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/nits.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/nits.png\",\"width\":550,\"height\":282},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/nits\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"glossary\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/glossary\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"nits\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Crystalfontz LCD Blog\",\"description\":\"We have a display for that!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Crystalfontz America Inc.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/CrystalfontzAmericaLogo-e1612976245961.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/CrystalfontzAmericaLogo-e1612976245961.jpg\",\"width\":120,\"height\":120,\"caption\":\"Crystalfontz America Inc.\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.crystalfontz.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/pages\\\/Crystalfontz-America-Inc\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/crystalfontz\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/crystalfontz\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/crystalfontz-america-inc\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/user\\\/CrystalfontzAmerica\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"nits - Crystalfontz LCD Glossary","description":"nits : What are nits? Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there's more: A nit is a unit of a display's luminance. The SI unit is the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"nits - Crystalfontz LCD Glossary","og_description":"nits : What are nits? Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there's more: A nit is a unit of a display's luminance. The SI unit is the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/","og_site_name":"Crystalfontz LCD Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Crystalfontz-America-Inc","article_modified_time":"2023-05-10T20:04:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":550,"height":282,"url":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/nits.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@crystalfontz","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/","url":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/","name":"nits - Crystalfontz LCD Glossary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/nits.png","datePublished":"2020-05-19T20:47:12+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-10T20:04:49+00:00","description":"nits : What are nits? Essentially, nits are a measure of brightness. Of course, there's more: A nit is a unit of a display's luminance. The SI unit is the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/nits.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/nits.png","width":550,"height":282},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/nits\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"glossary","item":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/glossary\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"nits"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/","name":"Crystalfontz LCD Blog","description":"We have a display for that!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Crystalfontz America Inc.","url":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/CrystalfontzAmericaLogo-e1612976245961.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/CrystalfontzAmericaLogo-e1612976245961.jpg","width":120,"height":120,"caption":"Crystalfontz America Inc."},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Crystalfontz-America-Inc","https:\/\/x.com\/crystalfontz","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/crystalfontz\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/crystalfontz-america-inc\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/CrystalfontzAmerica"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/1505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crystalfontz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}