Glossary

Color Rendering Index (CRI)

White light that we see is made up of all the various wavelengths/colors of light that we can see. Not all light sources can fully reproduce that entire spectrum, so we rate how much of it they can produce based on a 100 point scale called the Color Rendering Index. 100 is a perfect score, and that’s produced by the sun and incandescent bulbs. A score of 90 or higher is considered “High CRI” and that means the source reproduces 90% of the visible color spectrum. Most LED’s are rated at 70CRI, which is 70% of the visible color spectrum.

Color Temperature (CCT)

Color temperature is a measure of the blue/amber shift in a light source. It’s based on the light color that an element like tungsten will emit when heated to the specified temperature in Kelvin. It’s a spectrum but it can be divided roughly into three sections.

  • “Warm white” appears amber and is generally considered to span roughly 4000K or lower. Most incandescent bulbs fall into this range.
  • “Neutral white” appears pure white and is generally considered to spam from roughly 4000K to roughly 5700K. This range looks best to most people.
  • “Cool white” appears blue and is generally considered to span roughly 5700K and up. Most LED’s fall into this range.

DUV (Tint)

DUV is a measurement of the green or magenta tint in a light source. A positive value looks green and a negative value looks magenta. +/-0.0010 is not very noticeable. +/- 0.0100 is very noticeable.

UI (User Interface)

UI is what happens when you click/toggle/rotate the switch. Below is a table detailing the perfect single E-switch UI (in my opinion). I put it here because I have yet to find a light that gets every detail perfect, so I don’t have an actual example.

The actions are # of presses followed by a hold (H) or a release (C). So, “1C” is one click and release. “2H” is two clicks but you hold down the last one. The “Full” or “Half” at the beginning refers to how far the switch is being pressed.

StateActionResult
Off1HMoonlight (not memorized)
Off1COn (mode memory)
On1COff
On1HCycle mode (low-med-high, memorized)
Any2CTurbo
Any3CStrobe (optional)
Turbo2CReturn to memorized mode
Moonlight or Turbo1HLow