What is a hickey?

Answered by Suzanne Morgan, founder, Print Buyers Online.com

Question:
What is a hickey?

J.B.

Answer:
In offset lithography, hickies are spots or imperfections in the printing due to dirt, paper dust, particles, dried ink skin, etc. that have gotten stuck to a blanket or roller. These particles block the ink from lying down properly on the sheet and will show up as little "splotches" in the same position on every press sheet until the particle is wiped clean.

As pressmen run print jobs, they continually review the press sheets to check for hickies and other imperfections and work to correct the problem(s).
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