[libprints]

I desperately need help! I've been a printer for over 12 years and have just opened my business after a long time of building it. I know everything from managing a print shop down to being a press assistant and everything in between.The one thing I lack in is the graphic arts department and I cannot afford to hire anyone for that. I know how to do spot color seperations, but I have this one job that is haunting me and I cannot figure it out. HELP! I have the whole job seperated properly, but I cannot figure out how to make a black and white photograph of dogs into halftones. It will just be black for the dogs, so I already know its not going to be the greatest. My only help has been people knowledgable in photoshop for offset printing and they don't understand how to make it work for screen printing. Can someone please tell me how to take this photo and turn it into halftones properly. I can produce halftones in the picture but they are the same amount spread across the whole photo with different hues of gray behind them. The halftones aren't actually forming to make their own shades. They are just forming the same number and spaces of halftones across the whole picture and solid light and dark hues of gray behind the areas that should be shaded. I have searched everywhere on the net and there is NOTHING that will tell me how to do this. Please help. I know why this won't print and work, but I don't know how to fix this.

 

[boxcar22]

Are you printing this to a postscript printer? It sounds like your problem might be your halftone dot size. If your working with a grayscale image in photoshop, you should be able to change the haltone dot size in the Output settings (I think it's under the Screen option) when you print this. I usually use a setting of 48 - 50 lines per inch.
Alternatively, you could convert the entire grayscale image into a bitmap (Image--Mode--Bitmap) and set the method to halftones. It will then ask what freq. and angle you want to use. like I said I usually use 50 lpi at a 22.5 screen angle.Then just print it regularly.
Hope his helps

 

[John S]

....
Alternatively, you could convert the entire grayscale image into a bitmap (Image--Mode--Bitmap) and set the method to halftones.

I often use dither when converting the grayscale to bitmap. It creates the same size dots and spreads them out as needed.

First get your file up to actual printing size at 100 dpi.
When you select bitmap, choose dither (instead of halftone).

This image will work well on a 230 screen, OK on a 156, but iffy on a 110 mesh screen.

If you need a 110, start with a 80 dpi or lower grayscale file.

Do some testing, I think you will like it.