# CRI (Color Rendering Index) > A 0-100 scale measuring how accurately a light source reveals true colors compared to sunlight. 90+ is considered excellent. **Source:** CRI answers a question most people don't think to ask: does this light make things look like their actual color? Sunlight has a CRI of 100 — every color looks exactly right. A cheap LED with CRI 70 makes reds look muddy, skin tones appear sickly, and food look unappetizing. The difference between CRI 80 and CRI 90+ is subtle in a hallway but dramatic in a kitchen, bathroom, or closet — anywhere you're looking at food, skin, or clothes. Try comparing two bulbs side by side: under CRI 80, a red apple looks brownish. Under CRI 95, it looks like an apple. Restaurants figured this out years ago — high-CRI lighting makes food look better, which is why your home-cooked dinner never looks as good as it did at the restaurant. Most budget LEDs are CRI 80. Spending a dollar or two more for CRI 90+ is the single best upgrade for how your home feels under artificial light. ## Specifications | Spec | Value | | --- | --- | | CRI 80 | Acceptable for general use | | CRI 90+ | Excellent — retail, kitchens, bathrooms | | CRI 95+ | Studio/gallery quality | | CRI 100 | Perfect (sunlight / incandescent) | ## Related Terms - [Color Temperature](https://ledlightinginfo.com/glossary/color-temperature.md) — A measure of light appearance in Kelvin (K) — lower values are warm/yellow, higher values are cool/blue-white. Ranges from candlelight at 2200K to daylight at 6500K. - [Lumens](https://ledlightinginfo.com/glossary/lumens.md) — The unit measuring total visible light output. Unlike watts, lumens tell you how bright a bulb actually is. - [Phosphor](https://ledlightinginfo.com/glossary/phosphor.md) — A yellow coating applied over a blue LED chip that converts part of the blue light into other wavelengths, creating white light. The phosphor blend determines color temperature and CRI.