CRI stands for Color Rendering Index and is a measure of how well a light source renders the colors of objects compared to natural light. The higher the CRI value, the better the light source can display the colors of objects naturally.
CRI is measured on a scale of 0 to 100:
- A CRI of 100 means that the light source renders the colors of objects identically to natural sunlight.
- A CRI lower than 100 means that colors will not be displayed as faithfully, with lower CRI values indicating less accurate color reproduction.
In practice, the following applies:
- A lamp with a CRI between 80 and 90 is generally considered good for general lighting.
- Lamps with a CRI of 90 or higher are often used for applications where very accurate color reproduction is important, such as in museums, photo studios, medical environments or shops where color plays a major role.
The CRI therefore indicates the quality of light in terms of how naturally it renders the colors of objects and people. The closer the CRI value is to 100, the better the colors look under that light source.