Thank you! I will try that. I have a few illegible labels on dwarf aloes that I was trying the same photo tricks with, to no avail. Erin Grace Thomasville, Georgia USA It was 83 degrees a few days ago, tonight's forecast is 24 and windy On Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 6:04 PM Michael Homick via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Today while repotting we ran into the same dilemma of trying to read a > label that has faded in sunlight. We generally use venetian blind sections > and a soft lead pencil, which tends to last a very long time but the sun > and weathering can still make it difficult to read over time. We generally > take it out to full sun and by looking at different angles you may see a > possible letter or two. This label was almost impossible to make out > anything. > I have tried taking images and working with photoshop and various filter > effects to bring out the lettering, but that generally fails as well. > Today I tried a different approach. I had obtained a tube of powdered > graphite used to free up a sticking key lock. It acts as a Puffer dispenser > to puff graphite into the lock. I puffed a very small amount of the > graphite on the label and gently wiped my thumb over the label surface. The > graphite stuck to the old lettering so that in full sun I was able to make > out the original writing on the label. It was not crystal clear but was > readable. Hope this may help others in a similar situation. Not sure on how > it would work with faded markers and on other surfaces but may be worth a > try.. > All the best, Michael & Paul > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>