color temperature
Noun
Meaning
color temperature (countable and uncountable, plural color temperatures)
(physics) A property of a light source: the temperature of an ideal black body radiator that radiates light of a color comparable to that of the light source.
The typical color temperature of a standard incandescent lamp is about 2400 K.
Alternative names
color-temperature
Synonyms
Examples
Although the spectra of such lights are not accurately described by the black body radiation curve, a color temperature is quoted for which black body radiation would most closely match the subjective color of that source.
By analogy, nearly Planckian light sources such as certain fluorescent or high-intensity discharge lamps can be judged by their correlated color temperature (CCT); the color temperature of the Planckian radiator that best approximates them.
A nice touch is that when you tap on each of these options, you have a toggle to control whether whites look colder or warmer (a color temperature slider, in other words).
Instead, the bulb's light bounces around inside, which lets our spectrometer take reliable, calibrated measurements for things like brightness and color temperature.
Color matching software, such as Apple's ColorSync for Mac OS, will measure a monitor's color temperature and then adjust its settings accordingly.
Computer display systems use a technique called chromatic adaptation transforms citation to emulate the correlated color temperature of illumination sources, and cannot perfectly reproduce the intricate spectral combinations originally seen.