In this paper, we show that typical rule‐of‐thumb measures for visual quality are inadequate when characterizing digital signage‐type displays, which typically exhibit very large angular extent, large viewing distances, high front of screen luminance and pixel spatial profiles which are delta‐like. We introduce a method based on the Barten integral and CIECAM02 for characterizing visual quality and demonstrate the validity of the method by applying to a number of displays, including a direct emission LED display.