# Pattern Polarity

Every edge in the trained pattern can be described as light-to-dark or dark-to-light. You can configure the tool to locate only patterns where every edge has the same polarity as the trained pattern, or to find patterns with mismatched polarity.

Ignoring pattern polarity increases the variety of patterns the tool can find. The following figure shows examples of matched and mismatched pattern polarities:

Enable the Ignore Polarity parameter if your run-time images can experience a change in brightness or other issues that can change the appearance of the polarity of your trained pattern.