LED Fixtures and the Color Rendering Index (CRI)

The Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a numeric scale established by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). The CIE has established procedures and standards to evaluate how well an artificial white light source produces quality light when it is illuminating an object compared to under natural sunlight.

This scale is calibrated from 0 to 100, with 100 hundred being the highest rating, indicating the highest quality artificial light production. The CIE states that levels in the upper 90s are considered excellent, the lower 90s are very good, and those under 80 are considered poor. Today’s high-quality LEDs render exceptional levels of color across the full spectrum of visible light, which will result in providing brilliant and beautiful colors to the viewer.

Linear light fixtures with excellent CRI ratings will enable commercial, office, retail, educational, and medical facilities to represent the interior design color palette nearly as vivid as natural sunlight.

The Color Rendering Index scale explained

CRI 95 – 100 – Exceptional color rendering. Colors emerge as being very natural, as if lit by sunlight. Understated fabrics come alive and focused, skin complexion looks more beautiful, artwork graphics are more appealing, food looks more appetizing, and textures and paint show their true colors.

Excellent CRI-rated fixtures are used widely in graphic arts, high-end specialty boutiques, paint sample displays, design-driven luxury hotels, art galleries, and residential spaces where natural colors must look their best.

CRI 90 – 95 – Extraordinary color rendering. All colors come forth and are easily recognizable. The CRI of 90 is the starting point for high-quality lighting. Your spaces and furnishing look vibrant, and all colors are fully saturated. Clients will express positive visual cues, yet they will have little knowledge that the high LED CRI illumination is responsible for this incredible atmosphere.

CRI 80 – 90 – A well-approved range for color rendering; here, most colors are visually acceptable. Lighting practitioners for most commercial spaces use this range. Visual objects may not appear as fully color-saturated as desired.

CRI Below 80 → CRI below 80, to the viewer, the lighting quality here is observed to have poor color rendering. Under this illumination, objects and colors may look unsaturated, flat, and unrecognizable. It would be difficult to distinguish between similar color hues, such as black and navy blue. Objects of value lose their luster, color, and lower visual perception.

Lumato is a family of American-manufactured high-quality LED architectural grade luminaires specializing in linear lighting. Lumato’s product design team continues innovating an array of linear luminaire designs that enhance the space’s architectural elements while producing highly controllable illumination levels for today’s evolving commercial environments. Equipped with the latest in high color rendering LEDs, these quality-designed luminaires do more than light the given path or area; they create an illumination source of exceptional color rendering, flexible lumen output, a variety of color temperatures, a variety of lighting distributions and high energy efficacy.

Light without boundaries is the vision of each Lumato luminaire produced. From a production team with unlimited creativity in design, these linear luminaire families can blend into any architectural form. Lumato linear fixtures will function with high-end quality lighting performance and excellent CRI when required for the application.