Anti-Reflective Coating is a coating on the lens surface designed to reduce surface reflections and to improve clarity, comfort and cosmesis. People will experience better vision with ARC due to its ability to reduce glare caused by intralens reflections. This often improves the efficiency of the system; this is especially important if the light wasted by reflections is difficult to obtain, i.e. from a large telescope, an obstacle on a dark roadway, or an intricate optics experiment. They also have qualitative benefits like making the eyes of a glasses-wearer more visible and reducing the glint from a sniper's scope.

Advantage

An anti-reflective coating can be beneficial when driving at night. Often, individuals who wear glasses or contacts experience a halo effect around headlights and streetlights when driving in the dark.

An anti-reflective coating eliminates this effect and can make night driving less of a distraction.

An anti-reflective coating on your glasses can also be beneficial if you spend a great deal of time on the computer. Working on a computer for an extended period of time can lead to eye strain, as your eye muscles struggle to view specific areas of the monitor and battle the glare.

Typical symptoms of eyestrain while working on the computer include blurry vision, dry eyes, and irritation. Anti-reflective coating can reduce eyestrain and make it possible to work on the computer for longer periods of time without difficulty.

Eyestrain can also happen to people who do not work on computers on a regular basis. Spending a great deal of time in a dimly lit room.

Anti-reflective coating on glasses also improves your appearance, particularly when taking photographs while wearing your glasses.

With glasses that do not have anti-reflective coating, outside images tend to be reflected by the glasses and block out the wearer's eyes. Anti-reflective glasses ensure your eyes are seen.

On the downside, an anti-reflective coating makes glasses more prone to scratches. When purchasing an anti-reflective coating for your glasses, your eye doctor will likely provide you with a special cloth and cleaner to use on your glasses. Simply cleaning glasses with an anti-reflective coating on your shirt can cause scratches. Another drawback to the anti-reflective coating is that it tends to pick up fingerprints and dirt more easily than glasses without the coating. This results in the need to clean your glasses more often, which can be difficult if you do not have the proper cleaning tools on hand.