Fine Print

Fine Print Knowledge Center

The online guide to print and design.

Introduction
A Brief History of Printing
PrePress
Planning and Strategy
Design Tips
Color Management
File Submission
Proofing
Materials and Stocks
Inks
Platemaking
Types of Printing
Offset Lithography
Digital Printing
Screen Printing
Gravure
Thermography
Flexography
Letterpress
Large Format
Specialty Printing
3D Printing
Promotional
Security Printing
Green Printing
Types of Finishes
Coatings
Binding
Folding
Scoring
Die Cutting
Embossing
Foil Stamping
Perforations

1. A continuous tone image that has been photographed or scanned and then converted into tiny dots whose variations in size create the appearance of variations in tone.

Light areas, or highlights, have small dots and darker areas, or shadows, have larger dots.

Georg Meisenbach (1841-1912) is considered the inventor of halftone technology.

2. Traditionally, a halftone screen is a piece of film with a grid of lines (line screen).

It is used to break down continuous tone images, such as photographs, into half-tone images for printing.

The halftone screen breaks down the image into a symetrically aligned series of dots – known as halftone dots.

Nowadays, this process is generally done digitally, via an imagesetter.