What are the TM-30-15 Color Rendition Guidelines & Reports?

The ANSI/IES TM-30 Standards are an internationally accepted set of guidelines for characterizing the color rendition (color rendering) performance of virtually any light source, such as LEDs.

These standards were first released in 2015 as ANSI/IES TM-30-15. The standards included a specific format for reports of a light source color rendition performance. The report format was designed to provide a consistent set of key characteristics and metrics across the lighting industry.

For a given LED fixture, its TM-30 scores can be reported numerically and represented graphically as a
2- dimensional color vector graphic. The vector graphic shows one circle (black line), representing the reference sample colors, overlaid with a second circle (red line) representing the color rendition of those samples by the test light source. Variance of the red circle from the reference black circle indicates the color fidelity of the light source.

The TM-30-15 report format is shown in the image below. It provides a range of information and metrics on a test light source. The report includes the Color Vector Graphic in the lower left.

Example of the TM-30-15 report format which includes the color vector graphic (lower left, prior to the creation of hue angle bins), along with the fidelity index and gamut index shown as a scatter plot and other light source performance metrics (shown here for Luminus Product 30-95-AC40).

The report example shown above is for a Luminus LED product. It exhibits excellent color rendering performance, as demonstrated by the Color Vector Graphic, where the red circle almost completely matches the reference black circle, and the Fidelity Index (R_g vs R_f plot), where the red dot is located close to the peak of the V. By contrast, the TM-30-15 report shown below is for a sample light source with poor color rendition performance. Notice in the color vector graphic the red line shows significant divergence from the reference illuminant, and the red dot in the fidelity index is located far from the point of the V.

Examples of a light source with poor color rendering. This example is from the TM-30-15 calculator example database.

To learn more, refer to the Help Center articles:

FAQ -> Color Quality Metrics

White Papers -> Achieving Optimal Color Rendition with LEDs

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