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Deep black letters aren’t magic: Harry Potter book in Siegwerk ink
Knowledge is power and reading remains the key to it. In the seventh and last Harry Potter book, ink by the German printing ink producer Siegwerk ensures that the magic of wizardry finds its way to the printed page – and that millions of fans can discover how the saga ends. Mind you, it would almost be an insult to Siegwerk’s chemists to speak of simple printing ink. “We supply the printer with a special ink that renders the consistently deep black colour of the letters possible,” says Siegwerk technician Volker Schmid.
So while ‘normal’ books present the alphabet in what is more or less dark grey, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” comes in letters that are evenly black as the night – and that’s no sorcery. Siegwerk’s UV ink “Sicura Web” provides optimal readability thanks to a special formula. Due to the special UV drying process, the paper does not get too hot, which would automatically lead to unwanted expansion of the print carrier. The black Siegwerk ink dries within seconds, even on the high-quality Harry Potter ‘magic’ paper, so that the black tone really comes into its own. Schmidt says it’s a procedure that “is asserting itself more and more for top class books and other publications or packaging with high quality demands.”
According to author J. K. Rowling, Book 7 is the last instalment in the series. The English edition appears on July 21 – with the German translation following on October 27, though its title is not yet known.
The British edition will have 608 pages. 736 are planned for the German version. The first 250,000 copies of the British edition are currently being printed at GGP Media in Pössneck (Thuringia). In the USA and Canada, an initial 12 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” will be printed – a new record. Book 6 started out with 10.8 million copies.
The content of the final book has been the subject of speculation for months. It’s known that two of the main characters will die – but their names will remain a well-kept secret until the last minute. Be that as it may, thanks to highly legible Siegwerk ink, no questions will remain unanswered when readers get to the end of the book.