White's illusion is an optical illusion illustrating the fact that the same target luminance can elicit different perceptions of brightness in different contexts.

Note, that although the gray rectangles are all of equal luminance, the ones sharing a longer border with the lighter context appear brighter than the ones sharing their longest sides with the darker context.

Television screens depend on this visual illusion. Pixels that are not illuminated are seen as black, when they are really the same dim gray seen when the television is turned off.

Optical illusions

External links

• Did you know that squares A and B are the same colour?