Did you know TracePro has the ability to simulate luminance, illuminance, and luminous intensity? Luminance, illuminance, and luminous intensity are all photometric terms, meaning they take into account the response of the human eye. Your eye has a response from around 400nm to 750nm with a peak response for a daylight adapted eye at 555nm. This is called the Photopic curve.
The terms luminance, illuminance, and luminous intensity sound similar, but they represent very different metrics.
Luminance is light from a given area that is contained in a given solid angle. When you look at a computer monitor or an illuminated display, you are seeing luminance. The typical photometric unit of measure for luminance is cd/m2, also called nits. Luminance is perhaps the most important metric for display applications.
Illuminance is the measure of the spatial distribution of light on a surface or flux per area. Illuminance can be thought of as the illumination pattern of a light source on a surface. The typical photometric unit of measure for illuminance is the lux, or lumens/m2.
Luminous intensity is the measure of light into a given solid angle. Luminous intensity is the angular distribution of light. The typical photometric unit of measure for luminous intensity is the candela, or lumens per steradian. IES and LDT files are a common application of candela data.
TracePro can also simulate radiance and irradiance, the radiometric equivalents of luminance and illuminance, as well as radiometric intensity.
Luminance, illuminance, and luminous intensity are all important metrics in optical design and analysis. TracePro gives you the tools to measure all three of these metrics.