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Illuminance Converter

Convert illuminance between lux, foot-candle, lumen/m², phot and nox instantly in your browser.

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About this tool

Convert a lighting illuminance value between five units, entirely in your browser with no upload. Pick the From and To units, type a value, and the result updates live; the ⇄ button swaps the two units.

The base unit is the lux (lx), which is one lumen per square metre — so lux and lm/m² are identical here. Each unit carries an exact factor to lux: one foot-candle equals 10.76391 lux (one lumen per square foot), one phot equals 10,000 lux (the bright CGS unit, one lumen per square centimetre), and one nox is 0.001 lux for very dim levels. For example 1 foot-candle converts to 10.764 lux.

Handy for photography and film lighting, workspace and office lighting standards, greenhouse and grow-room planning, and photometry. Note that illuminance measures light falling on a surface — it is different from luminance (brightness of a surface) and from colour temperature in kelvin.

Frequently asked questions

How many lux is one foot-candle?
One foot-candle equals 10.76391 lux, because a foot-candle is one lumen per square foot and there are 10.76391 square feet in a square metre.
Is lux the same as lumen per square metre?
Yes. One lux is defined as one lumen per square metre, so the two units are identical and convert one-to-one in this tool.
What is a phot?
A phot is the CGS unit of illuminance, equal to one lumen per square centimetre, which is 10,000 lux. It represents very bright light such as direct sunlight.
Is illuminance the same as brightness or color temperature?
No. Illuminance is how much light lands on a surface (lux). Luminance is how bright a surface looks, and color temperature (kelvin) describes the light's warmth or coolness — different quantities.

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