Nit

A nit is one candela per square meter. It measures light emitted from a surface toward the viewer, which makes it the natural unit for self-emitting or backlit panels. Projectors are rated in lumens instead, because their light is measured before it reaches a screen.

Peak nits decide how convincing HDR highlights look and how well a display fights ambient light. Full-screen brightness, usually much lower, sets how bright a sunny daytime scene can be.

One foot-lambert equals 3.426 nits. SDR is mastered at about 100 nits, most HDR at 1,000, and a dark-room projector at 16 fL is producing about 55 nits.