Recent UV and optical observations of planetary nebulae.

This review contains a brief survey of the issues that have been the concern of optical and ultraviolet studies of planetary nebulae since the last IAU Symposium on this subject in 1982. The nature of this review is such that it is not possible to do justice to the wealth of work that has taken place in this period. The author just points out some characteristic examples of the different aspects of the work done.