HKS color fan

HKS-K color fan

The HKS color fan deck contains 88 so-called basic colors and a total of 3520 full-tone colors for art print and natural papers, the purpose of which is the objective ( i.e. independent of the individual color perception ) assessment and comparability, the reproducibility and communication of certain color nuances in the graphics industry. HKS is firstly the abbreviation for the printing and artist paint manufacturers H ostmann-Steinberg Druckfarben , K ast + Ehinger Druckfarben and H. S chmincke & Co. and secondly their trademarks or brand. The association of these companies (today HKS Trademark Association) has been defining HKS colors since 1968.

use

Each HKS color can e.g. B. in offset printing by using a special color premixed industrially by HKS or mixed by the printer from HKS pigments . Alternatively, their color effect can be simulated (mostly only approximately) by appropriate mixing ratios of the four-color printing colors cyan , magenta , yellow and black ( CMYK ).

Paper effect

There are different HKS color fans that do justice to the different color rendering depending on the substrate used:

• HKS K ( art print / picture printing papers )
• HKS N ( natural paper )
• HKS Z ( newsprint )
• HKS E ( continuous printing paper )

Color matching

The so-called color matching (color matching, instead of the original, the closest technically possible color is used) is a typical application that uses the HKS color fan. For example, HKS 47 K corresponds to cyan on the CMYK scale, while HKS 47 Z is slightly bluer than cyan. Due to the adaptation to different printing materials, the same color perception should be achieved in the print result .

HKS number	Color (approx)	CMYK (%)
HKS 47 K	HKS 47 K	100/0/0/0
HKS 47 N	HKS 47 N	100/3/0/0
HKS 47 Z	HKS 47 Z	100/10/0/0
HKS 47 E	HKS 47 E	100/0/0/0

If you want to use the HKS colors as a basis for other media for which no special colors can / should be used, they can be converted using their l * a * b * values . However, the HKS color of the fan that matches the substrate must be used. Professional DTP and graphics software can do these conversions themselves. In addition, HKS regularly publishes updated color management software extensions for color-accurate adjustment, assessment and application of HKS colors . There are also printing units that display HKS colors in CMYK (on different substrates) and are intended to make work easier for creative people.

While there is the net countless pages that RGB values for HKS colors list, but is discouraged by their use, since the RGB values are different depending on the RGB color profile - there are basically not the RGB value for HKS - or other printing color.

Web links

• The HKS website
• Concordance between HKS and RAL
• A fan full of colors
• HKS color palette ( Memento from August 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 3520 solid colors
2. ↑ Imprint. HKS trademark association e. V., accessed on March 23, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Der Druckspiegel , Volume 23 (1968), Issues 5–8, p. 388
4. ↑ See HKS (Hrsg.): HKS-Farben.de/Produkte , accessed on June 18, 2018.

The colors shown in this article are not binding and may appear different on different display devices.
One possibility to approximately calibrate the display with purely visual means is offered by the adjacent test image (only with native display resolution and when the page is not displayed zoomed):

Set the display device to sRGB mode, if available. If a letter (“R” for red, “G” for green or “B” for blue) appears strongly on one or more of the three gray areas, the gamma correction of the corresponding color channel should be corrected. sRGB corresponds to a gamma value of 2.2, which is the common value for TVs and computers with Windows or macOS (from version 10.6).