Selecting a Backlight Color

For most applications, the color of the lighting does not matter, especially for opaque parts. For this reason, we advise the standard red color.

It may be difficult to see translucent parts if their color is close to the color of the backlight. The parts may appear to blend into the background. This may be the case even with plastic parts that look opaque to the eye.

In the example below, when illuminated with a red backlight, the contrast between the yellow clips and the background is compromised (even if the clips look opaque with ambient light).

When illuminated with a blue backlight, the same part will have a much higher contrast against the background. This is because blue is the complementary color of yellow and is therefore better absorbed than red.

Symbols	Meaning
a	Blue backlight
b	Red backlight

This is because yellow is closer to red than to blue in the chromatic circle.

Symbols	Meaning
a	Green backlight
b	Blue backlight
c	Red backlight

To maximize the contrast, the color of the backlight should be the opposite of the color of the part.