full shade system (In French système à tons purs) system of paints graded according to their pigment concentration.

foveal vision (In French vision fovéale) sharp color vision guaranteed by the standard field of vision angle of 2° with the area of the fovea.

four-color/CMYK printing (In French impression en quadrichromie) printing with four process colors in accordance with the ISO scale 2846.

fount solution (In French solution/liquide de mouillage) in wet offset printing, an auxiliary substance which, through wetting of the non-image areas of the print forme contributes to its correct inking-in and which enters into an emulsion with the printing ink. Fount solution metering and additive concentration have an influence on drying time, gloss, color rendering/brilliance and propensity to scum.

formulation (In French formulation) printing ink recipe with certain required chemical, physical and optical properties.

formula, recipe (In French formule) percentage or volume specifications of printing ink components in a formulation that can be used as instructions for implementation with color mixture software and an ink metering system.

foil/film printing inks (In French encres pour impression sur film plastique) inks for printing foils/films with non-absorbent metal and/or plastic surface; drying mechanism either purely oxidative (i.e. without penetrating component) or radiation-curing.

Fogra Graphic Technology Research Association (In French Fogra) research institute and service provider; developed several test procedures and certifications in the field of printing inks and soft copy proof technology.

fog (In French voile) irritating, darkening tone value in the light tones of digital photos; can be corrected manually through histogram manipulation or automatically through white balance.

Focoltone swatch book (In French nuancier Focoltone) system developed for color communication between design, medium preprint and print, consisting of 763 shades resulting from the mixture of the process colors CMYK from a screen value of 5% or more; a special feature is the illustration of the color difference Delta E during dot-size-dependent tonal value increase; Focoltone is also available in some DTP programs for newspaper printing and as a digital color fan.

flushed pigments (In French pigments sous forme de flush) pigments that are added to oily binding agents from an aqueous suspension without intermediate drying; preferred procedure for the production of heatset printing inks.

fluorescent pigments (In French pigments fluorescents) color agent added to fluorescent inks; fluorescent pigments convert the UV components of daylight into visible wavelengths, so that the printing ink seems to remit more light than was radiated onto it.

fluorescent inks (In French encres fluorescentes) CMYK scales to which the fluorescence pigments have been added; used in posters, labels, stickers; with coarse pigments difficult to print; oxidative and UV formulation materials; low varnishing and light trueness.

fluorescent (light) lamp (In French lampe fluorescente) metal halide low pressure gas-filled tube, whose inside glass wall has a fluorescent coating; applications: Simulation of the CIE standard illuminants D50 and D65 as well as TL84 in color-matching booths, standard illumination on matching desks and on the desktop (reflected/transmitted light), digital photo studio lighting (see Just Normlicht), backlighting of active matrix displays.

fluorescence (In French flurorescence) emission of light through external excitation, e.g. of optical brighteners through the UV component of radiant light.

flicker index (In French indice de papillotement) tolerance measure for the flickering of a monitor.

flat tint (In French aplat) printed surface with the same hue and screen value or solid tone; printing requires the greatest attention, because the slightest fluctuations in the printing process (ink-dampening solution balance, roller stripes, dirt, color balance) soon become visible.

flash (In French flash) high-energy, extremely brief light emission; application: by means of the synchronization of web/sheet velocity and flash frequency (stroboscopy) color and color density measurement or the viewing of “still images”.

flare (In French vacillement) radiation intensity scatter.

fining (In French densification) reinforcement of the visual effect of pigment through the addition of suitable colored pigments, e.g. blue to black (or by applying a 40% cyan layer under solid black areas) or any color pigments to metallic-effect pigments.