half-tone

Definition:
Engraving process which produces any shade of grey between solid black and solid white, or natural gradations of tone in colours, for the reproduction of illustrations in print advertisements; the alternative is line engraving a solid colour. The material to be reproduced is photographed through a mesh screen, which reduces the image to a series of dots. This photographic image is converted into a metal plate on which the dots stand above the surface and are of variable size (their centres remaining always the same distance apart). An agglomeration of large dots produces a dark shade, an agglomeration of small dots a pale shade. Examine any half-tone illustration in a newspaper under a magnifying glass to verify this explanation. Half-tone reproduction is important because some vehicles in the print media are not as amenable to realistic gradation of tones as others. Individual half-tone illustrations are often simply described as 'half-tones'.

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