The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of light sources on readability of students using psychophysical methods. Light sources such as Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) and Light Emitting Diode lamp (LED) of same power rating were used in this research work because of their high lighting efficiency and uniformity of illuminance compared to that of Incandescent lamp (IL) and florescent lamp (FL). A group of prospective students having normal vision, and abnormal vision like myopia, hypermetropia and astigmatism were involved in the test process. Three types of test like Snellen visual acuity, Color contrast test and Readability test were conducted on student participants under different lighting conditions. Test results showed the visibility and color contrast sensitivity of the students were high in the LED illumination. The quantitative measure of readability under different circumstances showed that the lightness difference on text under different color combination and font size, affected their readability. The computed average results confirmed that the luminance and color contrast were improved in LED illumination and also proved a high readability measure in the experimentation. Both the results of psychophysical test were proven that LED lighting was the best lighting system suitable for color distinction and readability. © School of Engineering, Taylor’s University.