Johann Georg Heck (1795 - November 20, 1857) was a German engraver, cartographer, geographer, writer, lithographic printer, and publisher based in Leipzig. Heck was born in Strasbourg; little is known of his training but he became involved in the new technology of lithographic printing and was made head of the lithographic department at the Freiburger Kunstinstituts, founded by Bartholomä Herder (1774 - 1839). Heck remained at the institute until 1828, after which he managed a German-French bookstore in Paris and then headed the Paris branch of the publisher Herder and Cie. In 1834, he married Johanna Herder (1803 - 1887), the daughter of Bartholomä Herder. He was best known for several reference works that were published in English and French as well as German, especially his ten-volume Bilder-Atlas zum Conversations-Lexikon. Ikonographische Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste (published by F. A. Brockhaus), with 500 steel-engraved plates and more than 12,000 illustrations, which was one of the most popular reference works of the 19th century. He also published geographic atlases and separate issue maps in French, English, and German.
