| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
The gelatin process is useful for print runs of somewhere between twenty and one hundred copies, depending upon the skill of the user and the quality of the original. At least eight different colors of hectographic ink were available at one time, but purple was the most popular because of its density and contrast.
Hectography, requiring very limited technology and leaving few traces behind, has been deemed useful both in low-technology environments and in clandestine circumstances where discretion was necessary. The process also lent itself to small runs of fanzines in the earlier 20th century.
Before the popularization of spirit duplicators and the mimeograph, there were mechanized hectography machines which used a drum, rather than a simple flat pan of gelatin.
While the hectograph process is almost entirely obsolete for printing on paper, it's still used for making temporary tattoos on human skin. Tattoo artists use hectograph pencils to draw pictures on paper and then transfer them to the recipient's skin.
See also: Duplicating machines.