Screen brightness converter
Convert nits to foot-lamberts and back: the numbers on TV spec sheets, projector reports and phone reviews.
That's 1.33× as bright as a laptop screen, while a phone in sunlight is 2× brighter. HDR content is mastered for 1,000 nits and above.
What it means
How bright is that?
A nit and a candela per square meter are the same thing; both names are in daily use.
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Learn
Three things worth knowing
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1 foot-lambert is 3.43 nits
Cinema calibration at 14 fL is 48 nits. A phone at 800 nits is over 230 fL, which is why screens beat projectors outdoors.
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Nit from nitere, to shine
The nickname came from the Latin nitere. It stuck because "candela per square meter" is a mouthful for a marketing sheet.
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Nits are not lumens
Lumens measure the total light a projector emits; nits measure how bright a surface looks. A bright projector on a huge screen can still look dim.
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About brightness units
Luminance is light leaving a surface, measured in candela per square meter, universally nicknamed the nit. Cinema uses foot-lamberts, where a standard screen shows 14 fL, about 48 nits.