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Luminance converter
How bright a surface looks — what screen specs quote. 7 units, converted from one table of exact factors.
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1 candela/square meter in every other luminance unit
Computed by the same engine that runs the converter above, so these can never drift apart from it.
| From | Equals | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 candela/square meter | 1 | nit (nt) |
| 1 candela/square meter | 0.09290304 | candela/square foot (cd/ft²) |
| 1 candela/square meter | 0.00064516 | candela/square inch (cd/in²) |
| 1 candela/square meter | 0.0001 | stilb (sb) |
| 1 candela/square meter | 0.291863508 | foot-lambert (fL) |
| 1 candela/square meter | 0.0003141592654 | lambert (L) |
What each unit actually is
Most converters give you a number and stop. Where a figure is exact by definition we say so, and where it is an average or shifts with conditions we say that too — that is usually the thing you needed to know.
| Unit | Symbol | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| candela/square meter | cd/m² | Also called the nit. A phone screen runs 400–1,500 of these. |
| nit | nt | The same thing as cd/m², different name. |
| candela/square foot | cd/ft² | |
| candela/square inch | cd/in² | |
| stilb | sb | The CGS unit. |
| foot-lambert | fL | Still used in cinema projection standards. |
| lambert | L |
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