The architectural and roadway lighting communities have long relied on standardized data formats for the electronic transfer of far-field photometric data and related information. These data formats include IES LM-63-02, CIBSE TM14, and EULUMDAT. Apart from a few minor revisions, these data formats have remained essentially unchanged for the past several decades.

With the introduction of solid state lighting with color-changing capabilities, there is a need to include spectral power distributions in these data representations. There is also a need to represent radiant and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) intensity distributions for horticultural, aquacultural, and animal husbandry lighting applications.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to impossible to incorporate such information in existing photometric data standards. It is also unreasonable to develop new standards specifically for specialized applications, such as horticultural lighting. This document therefore presents a standardized data format for use with all lighting applications.

The represented data may be obtained when testing or simulating the optical characteristics of a luminaire, which may then be used with lighting design and analysis software, architectural visualization software, or optical design software.

This document specifies an electronic (XML-based) data format for the transfer of luminaire optical data useful for lighting design and analysis.