simple materials question(newbie)

I am just a few weeks into blender, and have up to now been modelling. Now I 'm starting to study materials and textures.
I have a problum: why can’t I make a white meterial?? It’s been driving me crazy if i set the color of a meterial to col white than it renders gray unless I use the “shadeless” option.

Yours trully,
an enthusiastic blender newbie

It is probably all to do with your lighting, blender tries to recreate real life situations so white, when dimly lit will look grey.

There’s also a slider in the shader panel for reflectivity - the default is 0.8. If you want a bright, washed out white, slide it to 1.0

Or you can hit the “Shadeless” button for an all-white sometimes tooney effect.

~Jace