Formula to determine brightness of RGB color

Question

I\'m looking for some kind of formula or algorithm to determine the brightness of a color given the RGB values. I know it can\'t be as simple as adding the RGB values toget

Answer 1

The inverse-gamma formula by Jive Dadson needs to have the half-adjust removed when implemented in Javascript, i.e. the return from function gam_sRGB needs to be return int(v*255); not return int(v*255+.5); Half-adjust rounds up, and this can cause a value one too high on a R=G=B i.e. grey colour triad. Greyscale conversion on a R=G=B triad should produce a value equal to R; it's one proof that the formula is valid. See Nine Shades of Greyscale for the formula in action (without the half-adjust).