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Incandescent lighting and autographs on paper

I know that all types of lighting can potentially damage autographs by causing fading. If I remember correctly from things I’ve read, however, incandescent lights give off a very low level of UV light. Is that true?

So please consider this scenario. I like to sit at the kitchen table at night and casually look at some of my autographs. When I do so, I have a couple of incandescent lights placed about 5 or 6 feet above my autographs, autographs that are on pieces of notebook paper in ballpoint pen or small-tip fiber pens or markers. If the only lighting the autographs are receiving is the incandescent lights previously mentioned for 5 or 6 hours potentially, do I need to be realistically concerned about fading over time?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on September 23, 2019 at 11:04pm

Great question, James. LED lighting generally produces very little UV light and they're often used in art and other museums. They're worth researching.

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Permalink Reply by James on September 24, 2019 at 12:33am

Ok, Steve. I’ll do some looking into LED lights.

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Permalink Reply by Woody2Shoes on September 25, 2019 at 5:42pm

And little heat, even with high illumination! You average 4-9 watt LED "light bulb", generates as much light as the average 60 watt incandescent filament bulb, with 1/10th of the heat, if any!