How do I make faded highlighting visible?

August 18, 2006 12:58 PM

How do I get faded highlighting (in a book) to be visible again?

I have a number of books in which I have highlighted various passages. Over time, some of them have faded to the point where the highlighting is no longer visible. Now, I'm looking for an easy way to make the faded highlighting show again--black light? magic CSI spray?--without having to read the entire book again with a new highlighter.

posted by unclejeffy to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Best answer: Most highlighters contain fluorescence, so a blacklight should reveal them. Do you have access to a college dorm?
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 2:04 PM on August 18, 2006

Best answer: Heh, Terminal Verbosity has it right, but if you don't have access to a college dorm, you can probably pick up something like this for cheap. I snagged one at Target or Walmart for something like $10.

Should work fine.
posted by quin at 3:14 PM on August 18, 2006

I can't imagine you'd want to do much reading by blacklight, though. Probably not too good for the eyes.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 5:59 PM on August 18, 2006

Actually, one of the lower powered ones, like the one I linked would really would only produce enough to highlight the stuff on the page if it was held pretty close. As long as there was normal light in the room as well, I doubt it would bother your eyes too much, buy YMMV.
posted by quin at 6:46 PM on August 18, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the advice. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.
posted by unclejeffy at 7:27 AM on August 19, 2006