• Incandescent Lamps and Natural Daylight produce smooth, continuous spectra.
  
  
• High Intensity Discharge Lamps (HID) produce light in discrete lines or bands (used in spectral analysis to identify or fingerprint the material producing the light).
  
  
• Fluorescent Lamps produce a combined spectrum -- a continuous or broad spectra from their phosphor, plus the line spectra of the mercury discharge.

In general, continuous spectra or very full-line spectra produce less distortion of object colors than a few discrete lines.

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