The terms brightness and colour brightness have distinct meanings. The first refers to a property of light, and the second to a property of colour as detailed below.
- Brightness (as opposed to colour brightness) is used to refer to a property of light.
- Colour brightness is used to refer to how much colour something appears to emit or reflect towards an observer.
- When brightness is used in connection with the HSB colour model it is used alongside hue and saturation and refers to the method of selecting and adjusting colours in software applications such as Adobe Illustrator.
- The HSB colour model is a representation of colours that combines hue, saturation, and brightness components.
- In the HSB brightness represents the intensity or lightness of a colour, with higher values indicating brighter or lighter colours.