What is CRI and How Does it Affect Lighting Suppliers?

Did you know all light isn’t created equal?

Some light renders color better than others. Color Rendering Index (CRI), is the measurement of how colors look under a light source compared with actual sunlight. The index is measured from 0-100, a perfect 100 indicating that colors under the light source appear the same as they would in natural light.

CRI is also an important measurement for lighting suppliers. It’s used to discern naturalness, hue discrimination, vividness, and color naming accuracy.

Along with CRI, there are two other measures of a high- or low-quality light you should be familiar with. CCT stands for Correlated Color Temperature (known as Color Temperature for many lights), and a Foot-Candle is a measurement that describes the total amount of light hitting your target area.

A foot-candle is a measurement that describes the amount of light reaching a specified surface area as opposed to the total amount of light coming from a source. From a user’s perspective, foot-candle is a much more important measurement, because a certain amount of light is always lost to light absorption, reflection, and/or dissipation.

Learn more about how lighting suppliers use CRI and foot-candles in their products on our website!

At RP Lighting, we have quality products value-priced to meet your lighting upgrade needs. We also have knowledgeable associates who can assist you in choosing the appropriate products for your specific application. Check out our catalog for more information!