What is Light Booth?
Also known as: colour matching cabinet, viewing booth, standard illuminants
A cabinet with standardised light sources used to compare fabric colours under daylight, store and home lighting in a controlled way.
Which lights are used to approve textile colour?
A light booth (colour-matching cabinet) gives everyone in the supply chain the same viewing conditions. It contains several standardised light sources, commonly D65 daylight, a store fluorescent such as CIE F11 (the type often called TL84) and warm incandescent Illuminant A, sometimes with UV for optical brighteners, inside a neutral grey interior. Samples are compared under each light in turn to judge the match and to catch metamerism. The illuminant also matters numerically: Lab values and Delta E are always calculated for a stated illuminant, so a colour spec should say which one. Texloom's Lab values use D65.
How is a light booth used during a colour approval?
A QC inspector places the approved standard and a bulk-production swatch side by side, then switches the booth from D65 to F11 to Illuminant A. The pair matches under daylight and warm light but splits under F11, so the batch is held for review.