Why Does Window Tint Look Blue?

If you have ever installed or looked through a ceramic window film and thought, “Why does this tint look blue?” you are not alone.

I want to clear something up right away. Nobody is putting blue into window film just to make installers mad.

There is a real reason ceramic window tint looks blue, and it has everything to do with what is inside the film.

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The Short Answer

Ceramic window tint can look blue because of the ceramic particle technology built into the film. In many ceramic products, those particles live in the hard coat of the window film, and sometimes they can also exist in the laminate layer of adhesive.

What you are seeing is not dye. It is not pigment. It is the ceramic itself.

Where the Blue Comes From

A lot of the materials used in ceramic window film come straight off the periodic table. Some of the common ones are:

• Tungsten oxide
• Titanium nitride
• Antimony tin oxide
• Indium tin oxide

These elements are pulverized into extremely small particles on a nanoscale. Nano means one billionth of an inch. We are talking about particles so small you can measure at a molecular level.

Here is the key point most people do not realize.

On a nanoscale, many of these materials naturally look blue.

So when you see that blue hue, you are seeing the nano ceramic technology as it exists inside the film.

More Ceramic Usually Means More Blue

The value of ceramic window tint is heat insulation and comfort.

The more ceramic you put into a window film, the more heat insulation you can get. And in many cases, the bluer the film can appear.

Why Light Shades Show Blue More

This is why you notice it most in lighter shades like 70 percent and above.

In those light shades, you generally do not have dye, pigment, or carbon in the film. You are using clear polyester layers, then applying the hard coat that contains the ceramic technology.

With nothing else in the film to blend or mask the hue, the blue becomes more noticeable.

Why Darker Shades Hide the Blue

When you introduce dye, pigment, or carbon to make the film darker, those darker materials blend with the ceramic. The blue becomes less noticeable.

That is why you usually do not see any blue in a 5 percent film.

A Simple Analogy That Makes It Click

Think about a bulletproof vest.

If someone asked for a bulletproof vest that feels like a T shirt and does not include Kevlar, could you really call it a bulletproof vest anymore?

No. You removed the thing that made it work.

If you remove the ceramic from ceramic tint just to get rid of the blue, you also remove the value ceramic brings to the table, which is heat insulation.

How We Approach It at Flexfilm

At Flexfilm, we focus on balance.

We use a high level of purity in tungsten oxide, and we put enough ceramic into the film to deliver strong heat insulation while still keeping the film visually clean. The goal is not to remove the technology. The goal is to engineer it properly.

So if you are seeing blue in a ceramic film, it is not automatically a problem. In many cases, it is a sign you are looking at the ceramic technology itself.

That is why your window tint looks blue.