Book excerpt: This issue of Dermatologic Clinics, guest edited by Jane M. Grant-Kels, Giovanni Pellacani, and Caterina Longo, is devoted to Confocal Microscopy. Articles in this timely issue include: Basics of Confocal Microscopy and the Complexity of Diagnosing Skin Tumors: New Imaging Tools in Clinical Practice, Diagnostic Workflows, Cost-estimate and New Trends; Opening a Window Into Living Tissue: Histopathologic Features of Confocal Microscopic Findings in Skin Tumors; Addressing the Issue of Discriminating Nevi from Early Melanomas: Dues and Pitfalls; Melanoma Types and Melanoma Progression: The Different Faces; Lentigo Maligna, Macules of the Face and Lesions on Sun-damaged Skin: Confocal makes the Difference; Glowing in the dark: use of confocal microscopy in dark pigmented lesions; Enlightening the Pink: Use of Confocal Microscopy in Pink Lesions; Shining into the White: The Spectrum of Epithelial Tumors from Actinic Keratosis to SCC; Application of Wide-probe and Handy-probe for Skin Cancer Diagnosis: Pros and Cons; Confocal Microscopy for Special Sites and Special Uses; Confocal Algorithms for Inflammatory Skin Diseases and Hair Diseases; In Vivo and Ex Vivo Confocal Microscopy for Dermatologic and Mohs’ Surgeons; Telediagnosis with Confocal Microscopy: A Reality or a Dream?; “Well-aging": Early Detection of Skin Aging Signs; The Role of Confocal Microscopy in Clinical Trials for Treatment Monitoring; and Fluorescence (multiwave) Confocal Microscopy.