Abstract

Evaluation of color-rendering capability of commercial lamps is considered from the point of view of the lampmaker and the typical user, rather than for precision color-matching applications. Only an approximate magnitude of color-rendering capability of a test lamp has meaning for the average user. Only illuminants of superb color-rendering capability are used here as reference illuminants. Such ideal reference illuminants are defined for a range of colors, both on and off the blackbody line. Chromatic adaptation approximates object-color constancy adequately closely as long as both initial and final illuminants have color-rendering capability approximately as good as that of a daylightlike illuminant. These considerations lead to more universal reference illuminants and allow usefully valid comparison of lamps of different colors with acceptable accuracy.

© 1972 Optical Society of America

Color-Discrimination Index

W. A. Thornton
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62(2) 191-194 (1972)

Luminosity and Color-Rendering Capability of White Light

W. A. Thornton
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 61(9) 1155-1163 (1971)

Entropy, color, and color rendering

Luke L. A. Price
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 29(12) 2557-2565 (2012)

Rugate filters used in slit-lamp delivery to improve color rendering of illumination for retinal photocoagulation

Yi Yu Li, Jiao Jie Chen, Hai Hua Feng, Hao Chen, and Qin Mei Wang
Appl. Opt. 53(15) 3361-3369 (2014)

Light Sources and Color Rendering

Dorothy Nickerson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 50(1) 57-69 (1960)