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Half tone Colors in Photoshop and Illustrator

104756 Views 50 Replies 35 Participants Last post by  PMCPrinting
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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.

hope someone finds it helpful.
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Thanks for the nice tutorial, Ken!
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.
np, glad you guys liked my first write up :)
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?
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.
Nice tutorial! :)
Cool tutorial!

:D :D :D :D
Is there a rule of thumb for applying this effect to 300dpi images such as max radius pixels, line screen settings per colors, etc?
very good tutorial. i was gonna post a new topic about half tones but this answered all of my questions.
Thanx man - great tutorial. I use photoshop to manipulate my graphix but end up spending hours getting everything just perfect.

Much love homies

Martin ;)
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.
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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.
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great article
this very usefull for me thank's bro
cool I've been looking for this effect for a while
where can i edit the colors for halftones in illustrator?... i get change them around but i can never seem to get just an original black and white
I hope my quest makes sense:

I have created a screen in class last year and the printed tshirt looks like a painting.

We did something wrong.

Playing with the 45 dots per line and 100 dots per line, what does it mean? how does it associate with the actual printing of the tshirt?

I see 100 creates more dots, but but does this mean when I print I will have more detail or does 45 give more detail?


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.
100 lines per inch will give you more detail than 45 lines per inch, but the maximum you'll ever likely print on a t-shirt might be 65 lines on an automatic press, and 55 on a manual. The 45 line per inch halftone is easier to manage, both in developing the screen and on press, though the halftone dots will be a little more noticable. The shirt material tends to soften the impact of the dot anyway. 50 lines per inch yields a nice print. Your exposure unit will also play a part in linescreen selection, as well as mesh count. You should have a vacuum blanket on your exposure unit if you're doing halftones to hold the best halftone dot definition.
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