The following visual and written descriptions of the archetypes of light manifestation are intended to categorically identify the various incidences of light information that we passively perceive on a daily basis. Some of these archetypes truncate information, some separate information, some concentrate information, and others duplicate information. These manifestations and intangible products are here viewed as different layers of information that undergo various optic processes and appear as a projected image.

The description of each archeytpe presents the parameters of each type of light effect, clarifies the role and agency of architecture in producing the effect, and finally considers the boundaries between and limits of the set of archetypes. Some fringe behaviours of light such as its behaviour as a wave and possible visible diffraction under specific conditions are viewed as existing beyond the scope of reasonable reproduction in an architectural context.