Glossary of Printing Terms

H

Hairlines - the thinnest of the strokes in a typeface.

Halftone - an illustration reproduced by breaking down the original tone into a pattern of dots of varying size. Light areas have small dots and darker areas or shadows have larger dots. Simulating a continuous tone photograph using dots.

Hardback - a case bound book with a separate stiff board cover.

Hickies - a dust particle sticking to the printing plate or blanket which appears on the printed sheet as a dark spot surrounded by an halo.