Abstract
As luminous efficacy of white LEDs improve, white LEDs are expected to contribute to energy saving of lighting, and are used widely as light sources for indoor and outdoor lighting. However, white LEDs are semiconductors and the principle of light emission of white LEDs is different from those of existing light sources so that the color appearance under white LEDs may be different from the existing light sources. Here I compare the differences between the existing light sources and white LEDs, and then introduce the current method of CIE/JIS color rendering evaluation and the color rendering of LED lighting. In addition, I introduce a trend of CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) which is going to replace Ra with a new color rendering index.
