The developing status of manual UV radiation source is reviewed and is classified according to the luminous principles. Firstly, the luminous principles and spectrum distributions of mercury lamps, deuterium lamps and xenon lamps in gas discharge lamps are introduced. Secondly, the operation principles and characteris.tics of UV lasers, halide tungsten lamps, UV luminous diodes and high-temperature blackbody are described. Fi.nally, the characteristics and applications of various manual UV radiation sources are summarized and the devel.oping trends are prospected.