I noticed there were some questions on halftone colors and how to create them while doing some searching around, so I figured I'll create a thread for those still new to PS and wanting to know an easy way to make a half tone layer.
For this tutorial i used Photoshop CS, but it should be pretty much all the same or similar for other version of PS
-first i created a layer with the gradiant box to convert to a halftone.
the process is pretty simple:
In PS go to filters > Pixelate > Color Halftone
In Illustrator it will be Effects > Pixelate > Color Halftone
now choose your variables for the halftone options
now you should see an image similar to the one below either in rgb or cmyk
Since we want it to be black & white for our screens unclick 2 colors for rgb and unclick cyan, magenta and yellow for CMYK
You should get something like the image above.
now you can print it out and get it ready to expose your first halftone screen
Additional stuff:
When applying the filter you can adjust the radius of the halftone to get a finer pattern. also depending on the dpi of the artwork and the detail and type of your screen you should be able to get some nice result. For illustrator you want to use the Effect tools instead of filters unless you want to rasterize your work.
It's a pretty basic tutorial, but i figured it might help some folks out who are still learning the in's and outs of usins PS and illustrator.
If you have a PS printer or rip software all you need to do is specify the dot size, shape and angle in the print engine. This is very useful info if you do not have a PS printer. Great job.
right on! i always love seeing something i hadn'd known before.
hey, ken, i tried this effect in illustrator and i can't seem to get it to stay vector. i did it through the effects and not the filters like you said. is there something i'm missing?
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." Groucho Marx
the vector shape and lines you have should stay a vector. the only thing that changes is the gradiant pattern or spot of color to a half tone pattern. if you want the halftones as vectorized patter, the only thing i can think is to use the trace tool or manually trace in a different layer.
The only problem is, you don't have control of your frequency, like a 45 dot per square inch, etc. This is the type of halftoning that I can't figure out when using photoshop.
There is another way to apply halftones to your images and be able to control it when using photoshop. There is a tutorial somewhere on these boards for it.
To output halftones directly from Illustrator (or Corel, for that matter), you'll either need a RIP, a postscript printer, or use Ghostscript.
Here's how in Photoshop:
1. If you're working with 4-color, duplicate your file, open the duplicate, make sure the layers are flattened, then select Split Channels. This will give you a file for each of the four colors as grayscale.
2. Select one of the 4 files, and in the Image menu at the top, select Mode, and then Bitmap. You'll get a dialog box asking a method to convert, and you'll select Halftone. Press Okay, and you'll get another dialog box where you can specify your screen angle, lines per inch, and dot shape. Make your choices and save the file. Additionally, once you know what screen angle, dot shape and linescreen you want to use for that particular color, you can record an action for each separation and just play it for that color after you split the channels . . . pretty much push-button halftone seps the next time you need to make halftones. You need an action for each color since the screen angle will change for each one, unless you're doing spot color or simulated process. You'll need to make additional action sets for different linescreens (45, 50, 55, etc.) if you use different ones for any reason.
Last edited by tpitman; November 17th, 2007 at 08:57 AM.
Half tone Colors in Photoshop and Illustrator 
Re: Half tone Colors in Photoshop and Illustrator 
Re: Half tone Colors in Photoshop and Illustrator 
