• Glossary

Technical terms H

Hydrochrom-effects

With screen printing one can print on almost any material and reach a lot of effects. These are calles print finishing. Special paints or lacquer, for example that change due to temperature or light influences,are the basis for such effects. Furthermore the hydrochromy describes dyes that change their color according to moisture effects. This area is including a white varnish which helps to overprint and hide printing information and that only get visible through the contact with water. This changes the color from white to transparent. Drying does turn the opposite effect. Information disappear again.

Hot foil embossing

For hot foil embossing, the elements to be embossed must not be present in the composite file, that is, the artwork must not lie underneath the embossed area, as this can lead to register problems.

HKS

The names of the ink manufacturers Hostmann-Steinberg, Kast + Ehinger und H. Schmincke & Co. hide behind the abbreviation HKS, who developed the so-called HKS colour palettes  in the 70ies. The HKS® K 3000 plus and HKS® N 3000 plus  guides each contain a matching range of 3,520 colour shades that offer the graphic designer a massive variety of colours from which to choose. Special colours will be examined according to the HKS-/Pantone-colour range usual n trade. The HKS colour palettes makes it easier to evaluate objectively and to compare colour  shades.

High pressure

Can be characterised above all by the fact that fort he printing form – the clichè – the the raised areas are image-carrying. The structure of the printing plant is simple and is similar to that of the gravure procedure. Furthermore the high pressure is a direct procedures, as the color of the printing plate is directly transferred onto the material to be printed.

Half tones

Half-tones are the so-called intermediate shades between black and white. Printing real half-tones is only provided in the low pressure due to its surface and depth variable printing form, as well as using the inkjet. By means of the variation of the slice thickness real half-tones are realized. Photos, color negatives and slides are made from real half-tones.

In the high-pressure, offset printing and silk screen printing the so-called  raster printing is the solution for the production of half-tones. It is a variation of the surface coverage - the ratio of printed to clear surface. This is necessary because a specific variability of color quantity is here not possible. Real half-tones are represented and only simulated by screening.