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halftone process

In photoengraving: The halftone process
…produced by photography through a screen of loosely woven fabric. The screen was placed some distance forward of the plane of the receiving photographic surface (film or plate) and had the effect of breaking the gray tones of the subject into dots of varying sizes, through a combination of geometric…
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rotogravure

In printing: Rotogravure
The screen no longer plays an optical role. It is used to establish the partitions that separate all the cells of the honeycomb from each other and that form a surface of uniform height, while the cells are all of different depths, so that the ink…
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halftone process

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Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

halftone process

printing

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Key People:: Arthur Rackham; Frederic Eugene Ives

Related Topics:: photolyphic engraving; benday process; screen; Dultgen halftone intaglio process; Henderson process

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halftone process, in printing, a technique of breaking up an image into a series of dots so as to reproduce the full tone range of a photograph or tone art work. Breaking up is usually done by a screen inserted over the plate being exposed. The screens are made with a varying number of lines per inch, depending on the application; for newspapers, the range is 50 to 85, and for magazines, 100 to 120. The highest quality reproduction requires 120 to 150 lines per inch.

screen

Learn about this topic in these articles:

halftone process

rotogravure

halftone process