All effects and presets

Effect

Halftone Screen

Print-style halftone dots and screens with angle and scale control.

Printing presses lay down solid ink or nothing. To suggest continuous tone, printers break images into dots of varying size. William Henry Fox Talbot patented the idea of photographic screens in 1852; commercially practical relief halftones arrived in the 1880s through inventors such as Frederic Ives and Georg Meisenbach, with precision cross-line screens following soon after.

Newspapers and magazines still speak this language. Angle and scale recreate the mechanical screen, from fine editorial dots to coarse punk posters.

Halftone Screen example
Example

Properties

  • Pattern

    dot shape; every shape prints the exact requested coverage

    Range
    Round, Euclidean, Elliptical, Square, Diamond, Lines, Cross-hatch
    Default
    Round

  • Frequency

    screen ruling in dots per image height

    Range
    10 to 300
    Default
    85.153

  • Paper color

    Range
    Colour
    Default
    0.995, 1, 0.889

  • Black generation

    how much of the neutral tone ink 4 carries (GCR)

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    0.536

  • Total ink

    maximum combined coverage of all inks; about 300 for coated and 240 for newsprint

    Range
    200 to 400
    Default
    323.846

  • Dot gain

    ink spreading that fattens midtone dots beyond the separation

    Range
    0 to 0.4
    Default
    0.117

  • Ink density

    strength of the solid ink film

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    1

  • Edge roughness

    ragged dot edges; independent per ink

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    0.376

  • Seed

    a fresh sheet per whole value: new ragged edges and paper texture plus sheet-to-sheet register and dot gain drift; animate it to re-print every frame

    Range
    0 to 100
    Default
    0

  • Enable

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    1

  • Color

    prints the cyan separation

    Range
    Black, Black Simulated, Risofederal Blue, Medium Blue, Blue, Cornflower, Aqua, Mint, Teal, Hunter Green, Green, Kelly Green, Moss, Yellow, Sunflower, Melon, Apricot, Orange, Red, Coral, Bright Red, Marine Red, Burgundy, Violet, Grape, Purple, Brown, Light Grey, Flat Gold, Metallic Gold, Fluorescent Pink, Fluorescent Orange, Fluorescent Red, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Green
    Default
    Blue

  • Angle

    Range
    -90 to 90
    Default
    16.127

  • Shift

    how far this ink prints out of register

    Range
    -1.5, -1.5 to 1.5, 1.5
    Default
    0, 0

  • Enable

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    1

  • Color

    prints the magenta separation

    Range
    Black, Black Simulated, Risofederal Blue, Medium Blue, Blue, Cornflower, Aqua, Mint, Teal, Hunter Green, Green, Kelly Green, Moss, Yellow, Sunflower, Melon, Apricot, Orange, Red, Coral, Bright Red, Marine Red, Burgundy, Violet, Grape, Purple, Brown, Light Grey, Flat Gold, Metallic Gold, Fluorescent Pink, Fluorescent Orange, Fluorescent Red, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Green
    Default
    Fluorescent Pink

  • Angle

    Range
    -90 to 90
    Default
    70.291

  • Shift

    how far this ink prints out of register

    Range
    -1.5, -1.5 to 1.5, 1.5
    Default
    0, 0

  • Enable

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    1

  • Color

    prints the yellow separation

    Range
    Black, Black Simulated, Risofederal Blue, Medium Blue, Blue, Cornflower, Aqua, Mint, Teal, Hunter Green, Green, Kelly Green, Moss, Yellow, Sunflower, Melon, Apricot, Orange, Red, Coral, Bright Red, Marine Red, Burgundy, Violet, Grape, Purple, Brown, Light Grey, Flat Gold, Metallic Gold, Fluorescent Pink, Fluorescent Orange, Fluorescent Red, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Green
    Default
    Yellow

  • Angle

    Range
    -90 to 90
    Default
    0

  • Shift

    how far this ink prints out of register

    Range
    -1.5, -1.5 to 1.5, 1.5
    Default
    0, 0

  • Enable

    Range
    0 to 1
    Default
    1

  • Color

    prints the black separation

    Range
    Black, Black Simulated, Risofederal Blue, Medium Blue, Blue, Cornflower, Aqua, Mint, Teal, Hunter Green, Green, Kelly Green, Moss, Yellow, Sunflower, Melon, Apricot, Orange, Red, Coral, Bright Red, Marine Red, Burgundy, Violet, Grape, Purple, Brown, Light Grey, Flat Gold, Metallic Gold, Fluorescent Pink, Fluorescent Orange, Fluorescent Red, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Green
    Default
    Black

  • Angle

    Range
    -90 to 90
    Default
    42.248

  • Shift

    how far this ink prints out of register

    Range
    -1.5, -1.5 to 1.5, 1.5
    Default
    0, 0

Command line

Requires Rethings Pro. Install the tool from Rethings → Install Command Line Tool… 

rethings apply --effect halftone-screen --set uPattern=0 --set uFrequency=85.1528 -i input.jpg -o output.png

Gallery

  • Halftone Screen example 1
  • Halftone Screen example 2
  • Halftone Screen example 3
  • Halftone Screen example 4
  • Halftone Screen example 5
  • Halftone Screen example 6
  • Halftone Screen example 7
  • Halftone Screen example 8
  • Halftone Screen example 9
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  • Halftone Screen example 11
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  • Halftone Screen example 27
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  • Halftone Screen example 31
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  • Halftone Screen example 33
  • Halftone Screen example 34
  • Halftone Screen example 35
  • Halftone Screen example 36
  • Halftone Screen example 37
  • Halftone Screen example 38
  • Halftone Screen example 39
  • Halftone Screen example 40
  • Halftone Screen example 41
  • Halftone Screen example 42
  • Halftone Screen example 43
  • Halftone Screen example 44
  • Halftone Screen example 45