A lumen is the basic unit of measurement for how bright a light is. The brighter the light, the more lumens it produces. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a lumen as “a unit of luminous flux equal to the light emitted in a unit solid angle by a uniform point source of one candle intensity.” For the layperson, a 1-lumen flashlight is barely enough to read a typical book at a normal reading distance from the face, or the amount of light of one birthday candle one foot away.