< Important Papers >
drawing with 5 highlighters on paper
2017
Subtitles per colour:
from very important to not important / yellow
from very important to not important / pink
from very important to not important / blue
from very important to not important / orange
from very important to not important / green

framed drawing with 5 highlighters each on 25 DIN A4 paper sheets
151x107 cm each colour


Highlighters can be used as a tool both for daily office routine and for highlighting texts. The German University of Duisburg-Essen proposes to develop a personal editing system with different colours for the active reading of scientific papers. Under this system, blue is used for »chief terms«, green for »enumeration and examples« and yellow for »important facts and definitions«. It is furthermore suggested by the PQ4R method (Preview, Questions, Read, Reflex, Recite, Review) not to use more than three colours.1

Wera Nägler explains in »Colours at the Office: Paper Overview (Part 2)« how the usage of highlighters or stickers can help to retrieve information at the office. When you read a piece of information for the first time, you should highlight the text with your individual colouring system. Ms Nägler recommends orange for »absolutely worth reading«, yellow for »could be important« and green for »interesting for the boss«.2

The highlighter is also very popular in the USA in Bible study, whereby it is advised to use yellow for »blessing«, blue for »Holy Spirit«, pink for »salvation« and green for »growth & new life«.3
For this work I used the highlighter Stabilo Boss Original, which is filled with 6 gram of water-based ink made of plastic emulsion and dye solution. The highlighter can write up to 375 meters and an unclosed pen does not dry out for 4 hours due to the Anti-Dry-Out technology.4

The lightfastness of a colour describes how resistant it is to fading when exposed to direct sunlight. It is measured by the Blue Wool Scale, which is an 8-level classification method (starting form »very poor« up to »excellent«) mainly used in the print and textile industry.5 The yellow ink of the Stabilo Boss Original has level 2 lightfastness (»poor lightfastness«) and all other colours have level 1 (»very poor lightfastness«).6



list of sources
1. Prof. Dr. Anja Tervooren (n.d.) - Wie lese ich aktiv einen Text? - AG Kindheitsforschung / Fakultät für Bildungswissenschaft, UDE [Universität Duisburg-Essen]; URL: www.unidue.de merkblatt_aktives_lesen.pdf [Retrieved: 11.6.2017]

2. Wera Nägler (09.04.2009) - Farben im Büro: Papier-Übersicht (Teil 2), Bonn; URL: https://www.experto.de/organisation/bueroorganisation/buero-ordnungdurch-farben-teil-2.html [Retrieved: 11.06.2017]

3. Hilary Greenbaum and Dana Rubinstein (20.01.2012) – The Hand-Held Highlighter; in: The New York Times Magazine / Sunday Magazine, New York, S. MM20; URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/magazine/the-hand-held-highlighter.html [Retrieved: 11.06.2017]

4. C.f.: Galileo Lunch Break (13.08.2015) - Warum leuchtet der Textmarker?, Studio71 GmbH, Berlin; URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqRvjj0vzw0 [Retrieved: 19.01.2018], 8:58 min

5. C.f.: (ed.) Wikimedia Foundation Inc. (28.09.2017) – Lichtechtheit, San Francisco; URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtechtheit [Retrieved: 21.01.2018]

6. Thomas Berger, Marketing Manager (15.01.2018) - AW: Kontaktformular AT [E-Mail], [thomas.berger@stabilo.com]

Lena Dams (15.01.2018)– Stabilo Boss Original /Lichtechtheit [E-Mail], [serviceteam.de@stabilo.com]