Most commercial reflectometers and spectrophotometers with reflectance capability measure relative reflectance. The instrument reading is the ratio of the measured radiation reflected from the reference specimen to the measured radiation reflected by the test specimen. That ratio is dependent on specific instrument parameters.

National standardizing laboratories and some research laboratories measure reflectance on instruments calibrated from basic principles, thereby establishing a scale of absolute reflectance as described in CIE Publication No. 44 (5). These measurements are sufficiently difficult and of prohibitive cost that they are usually left to laboratories that specialize in them.

A standard that has been measured on an absolute scale could be used to transfer that scale to a reflectometer. While such procedures exist, the constraints placed on the mechanical properties restrict the suitability of some of the optical properties, especially those properties related to the geometric distribution of reflected radiation. Thus, reflectance factor standards that are sufficiently rugged or cleanable to use as permanent transfer standards, with the exception of the sintered PTFE standards, depart considerably from the perfect diffuser in the geometric distribution of reflected radiation.

The geometric distribution of reflected radiance from such standards is sufficiently diffuse that such a standard can provide a dependable calibration of a directional-hemispherical or certain directional-directional reflectometers. Although pressed powder standards are subject to contamination and breakage, the reflectance factor of pressed powder can be sufficiently reproducible from specimen to specimen from a given lot of powder to allow the assignment of absolute reflectance factor values to all of the powder in a lot.

Sintered PTFE materials exhibit sufficient reproducibility from within the same specimen after resurfacing or cleaning the specimen to allow the assignment of absolute reflectance factor values.

Preparation of packed powder reflectance standards is covered in Practice E 259. This practice describes the spectral and physical properties of these materials and of the sintered PTFE materials.