What’s the Difference Between Screen and Dimout Roller Blind Fabric?
When choosing a fabric for your blinds, deciding how much light you want to pass through the blind (during the day and night) should be the biggest determining factor.
Too much light streaming in throughout the day can cause glare on screens and overheating from sunlight, whilst light pollution coming in at night can disrupt sleep and inhibit privacy.
However, there’s a balance between keeping out excess glare and creating privacy, while still retaining a view out of the window and taking advantage of natural daylight to reduce the need for artificial lighting.
There are two popular choices for this: screen fabrics, and dimout fabrics.
Both fabrics will provide a level of light and glare control, but there are a few key differences between the two types that might make one option much more suitable for your needs.
So, what is the difference between a screen and a dimout fabric?
Screen Fabrics
Screen fabrics are always one of the most popular choices for roller blind fabric in both the commercial and residential sectors. A screen fabric is one that is woven together to provide light control whilst retaining a view out.
Screen fabrics are effective at reducing glare and harsh light, whilst still providing the user with a view out of the window and access to natural daylight.
Sunscreen fabrics are available from multiple fabric suppliers, and come in a huge variety of colours and opennesses. The openness factor is expressed as a percentage and indicates how open the fabric weave is. Many screens, such as our Spectrum 5010 fabric, are available in a 1%, 3%, 5% and 10% openness. However there are some speciality screens which come in 2%, 4% and 25% openness, so there are options available for almost any requirement.
A key difference between screen and dimout fabrics is that colour choice can make a huge difference to the amount of light coming through and the view out of a screen fabric.
White screen fabrics are more reflective than darker colours, but they’re also much less absorbent, meaning lighter coloured screens let more light through. If you imagine a light box that you might see in a photography studio – they usually use a white fabric as it lets light through but it also diffuses it so it’s not as harsh. White screen fabrics work in the same way.
Darker screen fabrics are much better at absorbing light than lighter colours, so you not only get less light coming through, but it also gives you a better view through the fabric.
Screen fabrics also offer privacy during the day, when it’s darker inside than it is outside. However at night when it’s darker outside than it is inside, the opposite is true – you won’t be able to see out but anyone outside will be able to see in.
Dimout Fabrics
Dimout fabrics are on the other end of the light filtering spectrum than a voile blind. The key difference between the two is that a dimout blind does not let you see through it.
For some people, dark-coloured dimout fabrics will almost give a blackout effect. If it’s bright out and the blinds are closed, the room will be significantly darkened.
Light-coloured dimout fabrics won’t cut out nearly as much light as this.
What we refer to usually as a dimout fabric is one that doesn’t allow a view through but shades or partially darkens a room. However, a dimout blind won’t ever make a room pitch black or block out all light – for that you will need a blackout fabric.
Dimout fabrics are some of the most common in living rooms and bedrooms where a total blackout isn’t required. For example, if you like waking up with some natural light coming through the window, a light-coloured dimout blind will allow some light in through the fabric itself and around the edges of the fabric.
Dimout fabrics also provide privacy even at night, another reason they’re a popular choice for living rooms and bedrooms.
Our recommendations
At Umbra we work with a huge range of fabric suppliers to make sure we have a solution for every project.
Over the years we’ve found a range of light-filtering voiles and dimout fabrics that we recommend to customers for both their performance and their aesthetic appeal. Here’s a few of our favourites.
To find out more about fabric properties, our fabric range and which fabric is best for you, check out our other blog posts:
To speak to an expert about your requirements please get in touch: