Color Theory

Lightness

The perceived amount of light reflected by a color, ranging from black (0%) to white (100%).

Lightness is a perceptual measurement that indicates how light or dark a color appears. In the HSL model, lightness is the third component measured as a percentage, where 0% is pure black, 50% is the pure hue, and 100% is pure white. Lightness differs from brightness (used in HSV/HSB) in that maximum lightness always produces white regardless of saturation. In the CIELAB color space, the L* axis represents perceptual lightness, designed to be more uniform with human perception than HSL lightness.

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