Colour rendering index, or CRI, is a measure of the quality of color light, devised by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE). It generally ranges from zero for a source like a low-pressure sodium vapor lamp, which is monochromatic, to one hundred, for a source like an incandescent light bulb, which emits essentially blackbody radiation. It is related to color temperature, in that the CRI measures for a pair of light sources can only be compared if they have the same color temperature. A standard "cool white" fluorescent lamp will have a CRI near 62.
CRI is a quantitatively measurable index, not a subjective one. A reference source, such as blackbody radiation, is defined as having a CRI of 100 (this is why incandescent lamps have that rating, as they are, in effect, blackbody radiators), and the test source with the same color temperature is compared against this. Both sources are used to illuminate several standard samples. The perceived colors under the reference and test illumination (measured in CIE 1931 form) are compared using a standard formula, and averaged over the number of samples taken (usually eight) to get the final CRI. Because eight samples are usually used, manufacturers use the prefix "octo-" on their high-CRI lamps.
The standard formula consists of taking the color differences , between the test color and the eight samples, on the 1964 W*U*V* uniform color space (which is now obsolete). The color rendering index is calculated for each of the eight samples:
which gives the color rendering index with respect to each sample. The general color rendering index is then the average of these eight separate indices.
