[Zwaeback]

Hello,

I would appreciate help printing halftones as dots, instead of as solid tones.I can't find anyone who knows how to do this. I've even asked some experts, who advise me to tell the printer the lpi i want to use when i give them the work....the problem being that I AM THE PRINTER.... I would prefer being able to do this with Coreldraw, but Illustrator, Freehand or Xara would also work. Any help would be great...it would mean alot to me and our in-house screenprinter. For now i'm having to print the halftones on clear adhesive vinyl with the gerber edge because thats the only way i know how to do it.The experience is akin to using a ferrari to drive next door to see your neighbor.

thank you,
phil
jaegerstudios
all action awards/signs by heck

[Sumaleth]

This might not be of any help, but I seem to remember a plugin (part of standard instally) in photoshop that does half-tone conversions. I'd poke around in the filters list anyway (for all the progs you have) and see if anything does what you need.

Row.

[Zwaeback]

thank you Sumaleth,

I've tried the photoshop, xara and coreldraw BITMAP to halftone converter. it doesn't work well for what i need to do....its sloppy. what i need to use i think needs to be controlled in the postscript print dialogue of one of the vector programs. it should be pretty straight forward and simple...i'm just missing something.

thank you again,
phil

[Pat]

philjaeger, I've covered this before on this forum, but I'll do it again cause you asked.

Grayscale images can be converted to halftones in Photoshop by converting the image to a bitmap. When the dialog box pops up asking for which method you'd like to use, click the button for halftone screen. Another box will pop up asking you for the shape, size and angle. I prefer something around 65-85 lpi, which is a fairly large dot --but I use the technique to emulate zip-a-tone for comics. Just keep in mind you're going to have to use an excessive resolution (approx 800-1200 dpi) to achieve decent offset output, otherwise you're going to get a nasty moire pattern in the tone. Resizing the image after this process is not suggested.

In Freehand, I'd just save the image as an .eps file and bring it into Photoshop. Rasterize it at the proper dpi and then convert to bitmap. There are other ways to do this in Freehand, but they are pretty time intesive and involve defining postscript patterns. Depending on the complexity of your image it can take forever to print.

What puzzles me is you should be able to select the lpi setting from one of your print dialogues. Every imagesetter I've ever used had the option to increase or decrease the dot size directly from the device itself, which will produce the BEST results. On the mac, the printer driver is independent of the program used to print from, so once you know where the option is you use it to generate similar output from all your programs.

-Pat

[Laemtao]

You the Man PAT.. =) Thanks for sharing that info too. I have been trying to find out how to do this as well. Thanks a million.

---------
Mo

[Zwaeback]

THANK YOU Pat,

I didn't know that the halftone screen option existed in photoshop. (Image/Mode/Bitmap/Halftone Screen)

Well, we have an epson 3000, 880, and hp laserjet 4 here. i tried the halftone option in the print dialogue. it still gave me a solid tone. I could take a look at that later. For now i'll see about using the photoshop halftone option, coreldraw pattern halftone, and the halftone method i've been using. I mainly wanted to find another method for halftoning because in the past ive had to print onto clear vinyl then carefully place the vinyl on a sheet of acetate, which is bad for the screenprinter - too much plastic for the light to shine through. today, through coincidence i just learned that i could instead print on a clear positive that i wouldn't have to mount on anything else....just print it and its done. i've been trying to get away from printing images on the laserjet because its prints are not as opaque as the gerber edge printer here....we want nice sharp black images....up to 12.5" x 12.5".....this stuf' is all new to me, i graduated 1 1/2 yrs ago with a BFA in drawing....:~).

Thanks Again,
Phil