What color led to light up caution tape?

greenlight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 18, 2004
Messages
4,298
Location
chill valley
We have a lot of it at work, and my green x1 makes it look bright, but the blue one makes it look dull. It is not phosphorescent at all. Just standard vinyl tape.

Question: Which color led will make the yellow caution tape reflect the brightest? I assumed a yellow led would be best, but maybe I should go for amber.

Yellow/green may be the way to go, also. It's not the most desireable hue, but might work well in this circumstance.

Thanks for looking!
 

BamZipPow

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
64
Location
El Paso, TX
Since you have the tape there (visibility will vary based on the tape), grab a few colored LEDs and give it a shot. Piccies would be nice, too! :D

A combo of LEDs sounds like a good idea, too! I'm thinking some bright cyan might work well... ;)
 

Ken_McE

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 16, 2003
Messages
1,687
The tape reflects yellow light the best, so give it yellow(amber) light, which is what it reflects best.
 

UnknownVT

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 27, 2002
Messages
3,671
No pics - but I did some ad-hoc experiments with a piece of bright yellow plastic and various color LEDs.

Bear in mind yellow is high visibility in natural daylight - that's why it's chosen for caution tape.

Without any fluorescent ability - of all the colors tried - actually white was the best - mainly because yellow just naturally stands out.

I have yellow LEDs as well as orange (I EDC a Yellow Photon 2 - so I am biassed) - it makes the yellow standout against a dark background -
but put the yellow plastic against a white background and it almost merges into the white - yes, it's bright but can't see it too well against white -
so that kind of loses its intent, no? Think about it - isn't it hard to see yellow print on white (like on a map) under indoors artificial light (regular soft-white light bulbs)?

Other LED colors I tried were blue, purple (with lots of UV content), green and red - none did as well as the white.

If the yellow plastic fluoresced, then that would be an entirely different matter.
 

greenlight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 18, 2004
Messages
4,298
Location
chill valley
Well, the tape is offset by a dark background, and the idea is to highlight the tape only. So while white is suitable, I have found that the green led that I use appears bright, and also highlights the yellow tape, more than blue in particular.

Thanks for doing the experiments... I presumed yellow would be brightest, but would be interested in amber and orange, too, if they highlighted the tape.
 
Top