There are two common measures of photosynthetically active radiation: photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) and yield photon flux (YPF). PPF values all photons from 400 to 700 nm equally, while YPF weights photons in the range from 360 to 760 nm based on a plant's photosynthetic response.
PAR as described with PPF does not distinguish between different wavelengths between 400 and 700 nm, and assumes that wavelengths outside this range have zero photosynthetic action. If the exact spectrum of the light is known, the photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) values in μmol⋅s⋅m) can be modified by applying different weighting factors to different wavelengths. This results in a quantity called the yield photon flux (YPF). The red curve in the graph shows that photons around 610 nm (orange-red) have the highest amount of photosynthesis per photon. However, because short-wavelength photons carry more energy per photon, the maximum amount of photosynthesis per incident unit of energy is at a longer wavelength, around 650 nm (deep red).
It has been noted that there is considerable misunderstanding over the effect of light quality on plant growth. Many manufacturers claim significantly increased plant growth due to light quality (high YPF). The YPF curve indicates that orange and red photons between 600 and 630 nm can result in 20 to 30% more photosynthesis than blue or cyan photons between 400 and 540 nm.
But the YPF curve was developed from short-term measurements made on single leaves in low light. More recent longer-term studies with whole plants in higher light indicate that light quality may have a smaller effect on plant growth rate than light quantity. Blue light, while not delivering as many photons per joule, encourages leaf growth and affects other outcomes.
The conversion between energy-based PAR and photon-based PAR depends on the spectrum of the light source (see Photosynthetic efficiency). The following table shows the conversion factors from watts for black-body spectra that are truncated to the range 400&ndash;700 nm. It also shows the luminous efficacy for these light sources and the fraction of a real black-body radiator that is emitted as PAR.
For example, a light source of 1000 lm at a color temperature of 5800 K would emit approximately 1000/265 = 3.8 W of PAR, which is equivalent to 3.8 × 4.56 = 17.3 μmol/s. For a black-body light source at 5800 K, such as the sun is approximately, a fraction 0.368 of its total emitted radiation is emitted as PAR. For artificial light sources, that usually do not have a black-body spectrum, these conversion factors are only approximate.
The quantities in the table are calculated as
where  is the black-body spectrum according to Planck's law,  is the standard luminosity function,  represent the wavelength range (400–700 nm) of PAR, and  is the Avogadro constant.