What makes neon colors so bright?

Have you ever wondered why neon (aka fluorescent or day-glow) colors look so bright? This short guide will explain everything.

Neon ink contains pigments that 'fluoresce'. Meaning they convert some invisible UV light into visible light.

The neon pigments absorb the UV-light that the human eye cannot see and re-emit at a wavelength we can see. It's converted to the wavelength that matches the fluorescent pigment color.

Source

Because humans can't see the original UV light, neon ink looks like it is glowing.

This makes neon colors appear much brighter than conventional colors. Cool eh!

Like this:

Source

This image shows the whole electromagnetic spectrum and how much of it is visible light.

As you can see, there are lots of wavelengths the human eye cannot see.

Neon ink converts some of the UV light to visible light.