Glare caused from surfaces with high solar reflectance may present visibility concerns that can limit PDRC application, particularly within urban environments at the ground level. PDRCs that use a "scattering system" to generate reflection in a more diffused manner have been developed and are "more favorable in real applications," as per Lin et al.
Low-cost PDRC colored paint coatings, which reduce glare and increase the color diversity of PDRC surfaces, have also been developed. While some of the surface's solar reflectance is lost in the visible light spectrum, colored PDRCs can still exhibit significant cooling power, such as a coating by Zhai et al., which used a α- coating (resembling the color of the compound) to develop a non-toxic paint that demonstrated a solar reflectance of 99% and heat emissivity of 97%.
Generally it is noted that there is a tradeoff between cooling potential and darker colored surfaces. Less reflective colored PDRCs can also be applied to walls while more reflective white PDRCs can be applied to roofs to increase visual diversity of vertical surfaces, yet still contribute to cooling.