Why isn’t the Color Rendering Index a good method of determining a light source’s ability to reproduce color well?
When it was first developed, CRI was the best method to rate a light source’s ability to render color. Unfortunately, for non-continuous spectrum light sources, such as fluorescent lamps, the method does not accurately rate the source’s color rendering abilities. In fact, a high CRI can be produced by using three narrow spectrum lamps, one Blue, one Green and one Red. Because of this, the more stringent CIE publication 51 method was developed. GTI ColorMatcher® and Graphiclite® lamps achieve a Publication 51 rating of B/C, the rating required for critical color matching applications.
