Abstract— Recently, it was found that some materials doped with rare‐earth ions show bright and long‐lasting phosphorescence. They do not include radioactive elements and can be safely used as luminous paints for use in the dark. Some of them are better than the traditional zinc sulfide doped with copper (ZnS:Cu). The most important rare‐earth materials with long‐lasting phosphorescence are aluminates such as alkaline‐earth aluminates MAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+ (M = Sr, Ca) and garnets Y3Ga5O12:Tb3+, Gd3Ga5O12:Tb3+, Cd3Al2Ge3O12:Tb3+, Cd3M2Ge3O12:Pr3+ (M = Al, Ge), Y3Al5−xGaxO12:Ce3+ (x = 3, 3.5). Some oxides such as InBO3:Tb3+, Ba2SiO4:Dy3+ also show long‐lasting phosphorescence properties. Other sulfide materials include ZnS:Eu, CaxSr1−x S:Bi, Tm, Cu or CaxSr1−xS:Eu. Alkaline‐earth aluminates MAl2O4:Eu2+ (M = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) codoped with RE3+ (RE = Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu) were synthesized by using homogeneous precipitation method.