Chemical and physical methods have been applied to the task of improving the legibility of faded manuscript texts. As many inks contain soluble components, chemical methods may worsen the situation and are thus to be avoided. Mairinger reviews the positive and negative aspects of a number of physical tools -- infrared radiation, monochrome light (sodium vapor), digital picture analysis, ultraviolet radiation, x-ray radiation, neutron activation. He demonstrates the comparative effectiveness of a number of those methods on a leaf from a French Bible (ca 1250) containing a text written in blue and red inks.