Light control fabric: blockout, dim-out and light reduction

Light control is a fabric decision before it is a hardware decision. The cloth does the work, and what it does is set by how tightly it is woven and what sits behind the weave.

Four constructions, and the names are the specification

Blockout stops light at the cloth, through a coating or a bonded backing, so a room can be darkened in daylight. Dim-out reduces light heavily without eliminating it, which is what most meeting and teaching spaces actually want. Light reduction takes the edge off without closing the room down. Sheer diffuses rather than reduces, so it softens glare and keeps the view.

Each step toward darkness costs something

A blockout is the heaviest cloth on the track and the hardest to stack. A sheer hangs beautifully and does nothing for heat. So the useful question is not how dark a room can be made, but how dark it needs to be at the worst hour of its day.

Where film and solar tint belong instead

Fabric is one of three answers to daylight and it is the one that moves. Film sits on the glass and is permanent. Solar tint is in the coating and does its work before the light reaches the room. Where the problem is heat or glare rather than light level, those two belong in the conversation and have their own pages.

Every range these mills make is available. If what you need is not shown, ask.