Hexachrome is a six-color printing process designed by Pantone
Pantone Inc. In addition to custom CMYK
CMYK inks, Hexachrome uses orange and green inks to expand the color gamut for better color reproduction. It is therefore also known as a CMYKOG process. Hexachrome was discontinued by Pantone
Pantone in 2008 when Adobe Systems stopped supporting the HexWare plugin software. While the details of Hexachrome were not secret, its use was limited by trademark and patent to those obtaining a license from Pantone. The inventor of Hexachrome is Richard Herbert, who is also the president of Pantone Inc.[1]

Contents

1 Richard Herbert 2 Software 3 Purpose 4 Users 5 See also 6 External links 7 References

Richard Herbert[edit] Richard Herbert is the COO and President of Pantone
Pantone Inc.; these titles were handed down by his father, Lawrence Herbert. After realizing that graphics and printing would soon be completely taken over by computers,[1] Richard obtained degrees in computer engineering and business from Hofstra University, hoping to improve the digital application and printing of color.[2] He was responsible for many achievements of Pantone
Pantone Inc.; such as digitizing the Pantone
Pantone Matching System and incorporating the print and display data from the previously used CMYK
CMYK model. Herbert continued to keep Pantone
Pantone Inc. at a high standing in the field of color communications, as its matching system was used internationally.[2] Software[edit] In order to use the Hexachrome process in a digital printing process, Pantone
Pantone produced a plugin for Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop that allowed the designer to work in an RGB
RGB color space more typical of computer work.[3] The plug in was called HexWare, which contained a set of Adobe plug-ins used by printers and designers who used the Hexachrome system.[3] Older versions of QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign also came with the Hexachrome system already installed and enabled.[3] Purpose[edit] The main purpose of Hexachrome was to create a printing ink system that could depict brighter and clearer pictures by being able to produce more accurate colors.[4] Using this system instead of the CMYK ink system prints also allowed for more accurate skin tones and pastels.[5] The Hexachrome system let users print images from computer screens that were not able to be accurately duplicated before.[5] As well as producing overall better quality than previous systems, Hexachrome also increased efficiency as it produced many more spot colors.[4] Having more spot colors increased efficiency by allowing the press to use one ink set for all jobs, rather than one specified ink set for each job. Keeping a printer configured for Hexachrome also eliminated the number of washes required on the printer; therefore saving times and simplifying printing production.[4] Users[edit] Some software companies that employed the Hexachrome system were Aldus (now Adobe), Adobe Photoshop, and QuarkXPress; as well as the printer manufacturers HP, Epson, and Xerox.[1] See also[edit]

CcMmYK color model

External links[edit]

U.S. Patent 5,734,800 Pantone
Pantone Hexachrome patent announcement news release, May 26 1998

References[edit]

^ a b c Anchell, Steve. "The Pantone
Pantone Story". Rangefinder Magazine. Retrieved 1 March 2012.  ^ a b "Richard Herbert". Electronic Publishing.  Missing or empty url= (help); access-date= requires url= (help) ^ a b c Reid, Dan. " Hexachrome Printing". Digital Output. Retrieved 2 March 2012.  ^ a b c Reid, Dan. "6 colors hits the spot".  Missing or empty url= (help); access-date= requires url= (help) ^ a b "An extreme color gamut can help". Retrieved 1 March 2012. 

"An extreme color gamut can help". Retrieved 1 March 2012.  " Pantone
Pantone Expands the Color Range With Hexachrome System". Business Source Complere (not publicly available).  Missing or empty url= (help); access-date= requires url= (help) " Hexachrome on web offset line". Pantone
Pantone Inc.  Missing or empty url= (help); access-date= requires url= (help) Anchell, Steve. "The Pantone
Pantone Story". Rangefinder Magazine. Retrieved 1 March 2012.  Reid, Dan. "6 colors hits the spot".  Missing or empty url= (help); access-date= requires url= (help) Reid, Dan. " Hexachrome Printing". Digital Output. Retrieved 2 March 2012.  "Richard Herbert". Electronic Publishing.  Missing or empty url= (help); access-date= requires url= (help)

v t e

Color space

List of color spaces Color models

CAM

CIECAM02 iCAM

CIE

CIEXYZ CIELAB CIECAM02 CIELUV Yuv CIEUVW CIE RGB

RGB

RGB
RGB color space sRGB rg chromaticity Adobe Wide-gamut ProPhoto scRGB DCI-P3 Rec. 709 Rec. 2020 Rec. 2100

YUV

YUV

PAL

YDbDr

SECAM PAL-N

YIQ

NTSC

YCbCr

Rec. 601 Rec. 709 Rec. 2020 Rec. 2100

ICtCp YPbPr xvYCC YCoCg

Other

CcMmYK CMYK Coloroid LMS Hexachrome HSL, HSV HCL Imaginary color OSA-UCS PCCS RG RYB

Color systems and standards

ACES ANPA Colour Index International

CI list of dyes

DIC Federal Standard 595 HKS ICC profile ISCC–NBS Munsell NCS Ostwald Pantone RAL

list

For the vision capacities of organisms or machines, see  C