Highlighter
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A highlighter is a form of fiber tip pen which is used to highlight sections of documents in a vivid colour, while leaving the content beneath the marking unobscured. As such, highlighter ink is translucent.
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[edit] History
The first fiber tip pen was invented by Yukio Horie in 1962 in Japan. A highlighter is a fiber tip pen filled with transparent brightly coloured ink. The Avery Dennison Corporation trademarked the name Hi-Liter, they invented the name highlighter, but they did not invent the pen.
[edit] Styles
Many highlighters come in bright, often fluorescent colours. Being fluorescent, highlighter ink will glow under a black light [1]The most common colour for highlighters is yellow[original research?], but they are also found in pink, blue, green, orange, and purple varieties.
Highlighters are available in retractable form, or with an eraser on the opposite end of the felt tip. Other types of highlighters include the "trilighter," a triangularly-shaped pen with a different-coloured tip at each corner, and ones that are stackable.
Dry highlighters (occasionally called "dry line highlighters") are highlighters that, instead of having a felt tip, have applicators that apply a strip of highlighter tape, similar to audio cassette tape. Unlike standard highlighters, they are easily eraseable. They are to be distinguished from "dry mark highlighters", which are sometimes advertised as being useful for highlighting the Bible or other books with extremely thin pages.
[edit] Other Uses
- On rare occasions artists have used highlighters (including erasable highlighters)[2], either alone or in conjunction with other media, to create drawings.
- Word processing software has the ability to simulate highlighting capabilities by using a technique not dissimilar from reverse video on some terminals. Similar to this is the program Web Highlighter, allowing one to "attach highlighting, notes, and links to any Web page viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later."[3]
- Modern Artist James Cvetkovski is renowned for his famous works depicting highlighters, such as: Highlighters in Syrup, Fluorescent Happy Brain Surgery and Oh no; I've forgotten my Legs Mr Highlighter.
- On human skin, highlighter ink shows up brightly under a blacklight but is nearly invisible in regular light.[citation needed]
- The redaction of sensitive information by the US military and security services is sometimes referred to humorously as 'using the black highlighter'."[4]
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