Designed for researchers and museum professionals who want to protect light-sensitive artworks, the Light Damage Estimator is a smart, user-friendly tool. It helps you to estimate, predict and simulate how an object might change over time when exposed to light, enabling you to identify potential risks before any real damage is likely to occur.

Main dashboard of the Light Damage Estimator, where you can explore how light exposure may affect your object over time.

Choose the pigments and the related masks to visualise how specific colours may change under different lighting conditions.

Select a light source with specific spectral characteristics to ensure accurate colour change estimation for the artwork.

Adjust exposure settings to predict potential colour changes over time.

Compare predicted colour changes across different lighting setups and download results to guide conservation decisions.

Whether you’re working with paintings or other coloured objects, such as textiles, this tool offers a risk assessment method to help prevent unwanted colour changes. By combining the spectral profile of your chosen light source with known data on the colour change or fading behaviour of pigments and materials, the LDE lets you explore how different lighting conditions could affect specific areas of an artwork.

You can use it to customise lighting setups for each object, define safe exposure limits and strike the right balance between preservation and presentation. Want to experiment? The tool also lets you simulate and visualise the results of different scenarios, helping you to make informed decisions about protecting cultural heritage while still displaying it in optimal light conditions.

Credits

• Primary Credits: Panagiotis Siozos (FORTH), Irina-Mihaela Ciortan (NTNU), Petros Stavroulakis (FORTH), Gautier Rollin (IMKI), Sophia Sotiropoulou (FORTH)
• Secondary Credits: Giorgio Trumpy (NTNU), Letizia Monico (CNR SCITEC), David Buti (CNR ISPC), Brenda Doherty (CNR SCITEC), Catarina Monteiro Pinto (CNR SCITEC), Irina C. A. Sandu (MUNCH), Lucia Burgio (V&A), Pasxalis Panteleris (FORTH)

Learn more

• Siozos, Panagiotis, Letizia Monico, Aldo Romani, Costanza Miliani, Brenda Doherty, Irina Crina Anca Sandu, Hartmut Kutzke, Ingrid M T Flåte, Petros Stavroulakis, and Sophia Sotiropoulou. 2025. “Light Source Classification and Colour Change Modelling for Understanding and Predicting Pigments Discolouration.” Journal of Physics: Photonics 7 (3): 035020. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7647/ade8c2.