Ardrox readily penetrates and remains in minute openings, yet is easily rinsed from surrounding surfaces, and is highly luminescent with long wave ultra-violet (UV) light excitation. These characteristics are particularly complementary to cyanoacrylate ester polymerized impressions. A project was designed to compare Ardrox and UV light to Rhodamine 6G and laser illumination. Twenty different nonporous surfaces were chosen for this comparison. Results indicate that Ardrox produced much less background interference because of the lesser amount of methanol in the solution. Ardrox is a simple and inexpensive technique that may be of value to agencies that do not have access to a laser. 7 references, 3 figures, appendix.