Luminance Converter — cd/m² (nit), Footlambert, Stilb
Convert between 6 units of luminance — cd/m² (nit), cd/cm² (stilb), cd/ft², footlambert (fL), lambert (L), and milli-lambert. Luminance describes how bright a surface appears to the eye. The Sun's surface is 1.6 × 10⁹ cd/m²; a typical LCD monitor is 200–400 nits; HDR cinema displays reach 10,000 nits. Used in display engineering, photography, cinema projection and glare analysis.
About the Luminance Converter
Luminance measures the intensity of light emitted or reflected from a surface per unit area in a given direction — it describes how bright a surface appears to the human eye. The SI unit is candela per square metre (cd/m²), also called the nit. Display engineers use nits to rate screen brightness; HDR TVs typically reach 1,000–10,000 nits. The footlambert is the traditional unit used in US cinema projection standards.
- ›The surface of the Sun has a luminance of about 1.6 × 10⁹ cd/m² — staring at it causes blindness
- ›A typical LCD monitor operates at 200–400 cd/m² (nits)
- ›HDR displays for cinema can reach 10,000 nits peak brightness
- ›The human eye can perceive luminance across a range of more than 14 orders of magnitude