Document And Entity Information (USD $) In Millions, except Share data, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2011	Feb. 29, 2012	Jul. 01, 2011
Document And Entity Information [Abstract]
Document Type	10-K
Amendment Flag	true
Amendment Description	Explanatory Note This Form 10-K/A is being filed as Amendment No. 1 to the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Newport Corporation (the "Company") for the year ended December 31, 2011, which was originally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 15, 2012 ("Original Filing"). This Form 10-K/A is being filed for the purpose of making certain corrections to the Registrant's consolidated statement of cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2011 and related changes to the narrative discussion under the heading "Liquidity and Capital Resources" in Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, as discussed in more detail below. Specifically, the classification of debt issuance costs of $6.2 million related to the Company's senior secured credit facility and a commitment fee of $0.5 million related to an interim revolving line of credit has been corrected within the Company's consolidated statement of cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2011. In the Original Filing, the debt issuance costs related to the credit facility had been included as part of the change in prepaid expenses and other assets within cash flows from operating activities. These costs are now classified in this Form 10-K/A as debt issuance costs under cash flows from financing activities. In the Original Filing, the $0.5 million commitment fee had not been included as an adjustment to reconcile net income to cash provided by operating activities. Such commitment fee has now been classified in this Form 10-K/A as debt issuance costs under cash flows from financing activities and has correspondingly been included as an adjustment to reconcile net income to cash provided by operating activities. These corrections resulted in an increase of $6.7 million in net cash provided by operating activities and a corresponding decrease in net cash provided by financing activities for the year ended December 31, 2011. A paragraph has been added under the heading "Corrections" in Note 1 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements to explain such corrections. In addition, the narrative discussion regarding the Company's cash flows under the heading "Liquidity and Capital Resources" in Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, has been amended to reflect such changes. The XBRL interactive data filed as exhibits to the Original Filing have also been amended to reflect the corrections in the Company's consolidated statement of cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2011 and the associated change in Note 1 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements and have been re-filed with this Form 10-K/A. Except as described above, no other substantive changes have been made to the Original Filing. This Form 10-K/A speaks as of the filing date of the Original Filing, and has not been updated to reflect events occurring subsequent to the date of the Original Filing.
Document Period End Date	Dec. 31, 2011
Document Fiscal Period Focus	FY
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2011
Entity Registrant Name	NEWPORT CORP
Entity Central Index Key	0000225263
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		37,770,642
Entity Well-known Seasoned Issuer	No
Entity Public Float			$ 672.7
Entity Current Reporting Status	Yes
Entity Voluntary Filers	No

Description of changes contained within amended document.

No definition available.

Name:	dei_AmendmentDescription
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

If the value is true, then the document as an amendment to previously-filed/accepted document.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_AmendmentFlag
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:booleanItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

End date of current fiscal year in the format --MM-DD.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_CurrentFiscalYearEndDate
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:gMonthDayItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

This is focus fiscal period of the document report. For a first quarter 2006 quarterly report, which may also provide financial information from prior periods, the first fiscal quarter should be given as the fiscal period focus. Values: FY, Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, H1, H2, M9, T1, T2, T3, M8, CY.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_DocumentFiscalPeriodFocus
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	dei:fiscalPeriodItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

This is focus fiscal year of the document report in CCYY format. For a 2006 annual report, which may also provide financial information from prior periods, fiscal 2006 should be given as the fiscal year focus. Example: 2006.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_DocumentFiscalYearFocus
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:gYearItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The end date of the period reflected on the cover page if a periodic report. For all other reports and registration statements containing historical data, it is the date up through which that historical data is presented. If there is no historical data in the report, use the filing date. The format of the date is CCYY-MM-DD.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_DocumentPeriodEndDate
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:dateItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

The type of document being provided (such as 10-K, 10-Q, N-1A, etc). The document type is limited to the same value as the supporting SEC submission type, minus any "/A" suffix. The acceptable values are as follows: S-1, S-3, S-4, S-11, F-1, F-3, F-4, F-9, F-10, 6-K, 8-K, 10, 10-K, 10-Q, 20-F, 40-F, N-1A, 485BPOS, 497, NCSR, N-CSR, N-CSRS, N-Q, 10-KT, 10-QT, 20-FT, POS AM and Other.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_DocumentType
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	dei:submissionTypeItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

A unique 10-digit SEC-issued value to identify entities that have filed disclosures with the SEC. It is commonly abbreviated as CIK.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

-Publisher SEC

-Name Regulation 12B

-Number 240

-Section 12b

-Subsection 1

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityCentralIndexKey
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	dei:centralIndexKeyItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Indicate number of shares outstanding of each of registrant's classes of common stock, as of latest practicable date. Where multiple classes exist define each class by adding class of stock items such as Common Class A [Member], Common Class B [Member] onto the Instrument [Domain] of the Entity Listings, Instrument

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:sharesItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Indicate "Yes" or "No" whether registrants (1) have filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that registrants were required to file such reports), and (2) have been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. This information should be based on the registrant's current or most recent filing containing the related disclosure.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityCurrentReportingStatus
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	dei:yesNoItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Indicate whether the registrant is one of the following: (1) Large Accelerated Filer, (2) Accelerated Filer, (3) Non-accelerated Filer, or (4) Smaller Reporting Company. Definitions of these categories are stated in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. This information should be based on the registrant's current or most recent filing containing the related disclosure.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityFilerCategory
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	dei:filerCategoryItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

State aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to price at which the common equity was last sold, or average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter. The public float should be reported on the cover page of the registrants form 10K.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityPublicFloat
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The exact name of the entity filing the report as specified in its charter, which is required by forms filed with the SEC.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

-Publisher SEC

-Name Regulation 12B

-Number 240

-Section 12b

-Subsection 1

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityRegistrantName
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	xbrli:normalizedStringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Indicate "Yes" or "No" if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityVoluntaryFilers
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	dei:yesNoItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Indicate "Yes" or "No" if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Is used on Form Type: 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, 20-F, 6-K, 10-K/A, 10-Q/A, 20-F/A, 6-K/A, N-CSR, N-Q, N-1A.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	dei_EntityWellKnownSeasonedIssuer
Namespace Prefix:	dei_
Data Type:	dei:yesNoItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	newp_DocumentAndEntityInformationAbstract
Namespace Prefix:	newp_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration