Quality of light: Brighter whites

An often overlooked characteristic of light sources is their ability to render white, which is arguably as important as color rendering. Most white-colored manufactured products include optical brighteners, also known as fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs), which are designed to pick up short-wavelength light (UV and violet) and re-emit it as longer-wavelength visible light. The effect is an increase in bluish tint as well as an increase in reflected brightness, both of which serve to make such whites “whiter”. Despite the ubiquity of white objects in our lives, Whiteness Rendering is not captured by standard measures of light quality, such as the Color Rendering Index (CRI). Read More