Perfect “CRI” – 90+ CRI means Red = Red
For lighting companies to enable consumers to differentiate between high-quality light and the cheap ones that wash out your color, they invented “CRI” or “Color Rendering Index.” Because the light coming from the Sun can reflect all the colors we can see – it has a CRI of 100. Today – by mixing and arranging different colors of LEDs,– a good desk lamp can achieve over 90% of all colors found in sunlight.
To avoid buying a “bright” desk lamp that makes everything look pale and washed out – you will want to look for a desk lamp with a CRI at 90 or above. Companies with logos that have red and secondary colors such as purple should especially be sensitive to CRI in their lighting. Bottom line – a “bright” light with low CRI is the difference between eating fresh-baked artisanal French bread – or a wad of white spongy sandwich bread. They both have flour and are bread – but the experience is different.