# Halftone

Screens · ink on paper

A printing press can't print grey. It prints dots, big where the picture is dark and small where it's light, and your eye blends them back into a photo. Halftone screens your picture into dots, lines or shapes in ink on paper.

## Controls

### Screen

- **Method** (Select: Dot / Line / Square / Cross / Diamond / Star / Glyph / Cluster / Toner / Beam H / Beam V). The shape of the screen. Dot is the classic. Line, Square, Cross, Diamond and Star swap the shape, Glyph uses characters, Cluster builds dots from tiny pixels like a laser printer, Toner is copier grain, Beam H and Beam V are swelling scan lines.
- **Size** (hero knob, 1.0px to 30.0px, rests at 5.1px). The hero. How big each cell is. Small is a fine magazine screen, big is a billboard.
- **Angle** (Knob, 0° to 90°, rests at 23°). Rotates the screen. 45° is the classic angle for a single ink.
- **Softness** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 30). Softens the edge of each dot. Low is crisp, high goes blurry.

### Tone

- **Black** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Sets the black point.
- **White** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 100). Sets the white point.
- **Gamma** (Fader, -100 to +100, rests at 0). Lightens or darkens the midtones before screening.
- **Sharpen** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 25). Sharpens edges first, so detail survives the screen.
- **Radius** (Knob, 1.0× to 6.0×, rests at 1.0×). How wide the sharpening reaches.

### Ink

- **Color** (Select: Ink / Tones / Palette / Source). Where the color comes from. **Ink** prints one ink on paper, the darkest and lightest colors of the palette. **Tones** steps through the palette from dark to light. **Palette** screens each spot between its two nearest palette colors. **Source** prints dots in your picture's own color.
- **Palette** (Select: Newsprint / Chrome / Riso / Pocket Green / Fantasy 16 / CGA / Home 8-bit / 1-Bit Desk / Faded print / Sunset / Mono 4 / Dial-up Dusk / Red Sunset / Arcade Neon / Sea Glass / Moss). The palette. Change any of its colors under the faceplate.
- **Levels** (Knob, 2 to 32, rests at 17). How many color steps the Toner and Cluster screens use when **Color** is **Source**.

### Register

- **Misregister** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Pulls the color channels apart, on the Toner and Cluster screens in color.
- **Drift** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). The channels wander through the loop. With Beam H and Beam V, the beams wave harder and travel faster.

### Press

- **Paper** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Paper fiber and tooth showing through the print.
- **Ink spread** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Ink spreads into the paper and the dots swell, so the print goes darker.
- **Rough** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Ragged dot edges, like ink on rough stock.
- **Wear** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). A worn plate. Patches of dots drop out.

### Print

- **Print** (Select: Screen / 72 dpi / 150 dpi / 300 dpi / 600 dpi). **Screen** sizes the dots in screen pixels. A dpi sizes them as printer dots, as fine as a real print would be.
- **Print width** (Knob, 2 in to 24 in, rests at 8 in). How wide that print is. Wider means finer dots on screen.

### Motion

- **Boil** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). The screen shimmers frame to frame while the picture holds.
- **Boil rate** (Select: 12 fps / 8 fps / 4 fps). How fast the shimmer runs. 12, 8 or 4 frames a second.
- **Spin** (Select: Still / 1× / 2×). The screen turns with the loop, once or twice around.

### Finish

- **Roller bands** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Bands of heavier and lighter ink across the sheet, from an uneven roller.
- **Slur** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Every dot prints twice, a hair apart, like a sheet that slipped on the press.
- **Outline** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Traces an ink line around the shapes in the picture.
- **Reprint** (Pulse button). Press it to pull a fresh sheet. The roller bands land somewhere new.

## Presets

- **Colored Dots**: Colored dots at 45° on paper, like the old Halftone effect.
- **Clustered Print**: A clustered-dot screen, printed 8 inches wide at 150 dpi.
- **Boiling Dots**: The dot screen jitters every frame while the picture holds.
- **Spinning Screen**: The halftone screen turns once a loop.
- **Slurred Press**: Doubled dots and roller bands, like a tired press.
- **Inked Outline**: Halftone with an ink line traced around the shapes.
- **Ben-Day Comic**: Fat colored dots at 45°, a little ink spread, pulpy paper.
- **Line Engraving**: A fine line screen at 15° in black ink.
- **Billboard Dots**: Huge dots you only read from across the street.
- **Square Mosaic**: Square cells that grow with the picture.
- **Crosshatch Screen**: Crossed strokes instead of dots.
- **Gig Poster**: Red-sunset tones in coarse dots, rough ink on toothy stock.
- **Sun-Faded Flyer**: A faded print palette in dots, worn and papery.
- **Diamond Gravure**: A fine diamond screen through a chrome tone map.
- **Fax Morning**: Toner on thermal fax paper: grey, streaky, banded.
- **Tidal Lines**: Wavy horizontal lines in sea-glass tones.
- **Chrome Screen**: A chrome gradient map printed as a 22.5° halftone: steel, sky and horizon bands in dots.
- **Newsprint**: Black ink dots at 45° on cream newsprint.
- **Signal Lines**: Horizontal beams that swell and bend with the picture, like a scan signal.
- **Star Screen**: A halftone made of stars instead of dots.
- **Glyph Screen**: Characters as halftone dots, denser where the picture is darker.
- **Copy Toner**: Photocopy toner: grainy threshold, worn plate, fibrous paper.