Screentones Resource Compilation

May 25, 201015 min read

Deviation Actions

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bakenekogirl

Published: May 25, 2010

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Screentones Resource Compilation
What are they and where do I find them?
by bakenekogirl

From the original article Screentone or are you...? by bakenekogirl!

What are Screentones?

"Screentone (or Halftone) is a technique for applying textures and shades to drawings, used as an alternative to hatching. In the conventional process, patterns are transferred to paper from preprinted sheets, but the technique is also simulated in computer graphics. It is also known by the common brand names Zip-A-Tone (1937, now defunct), Chart-Pak (1949), and Letratone (1966, from Letraset)."

A traditional screentone sheet consists of a flexible transparent backing, the printed texture, and a wax adhesive layer. The sheet is applied to the paper, adhesive down, and rubbed with a stylus on the backing side. The backing is then peeled off, leaving the ink adhered to the paper where pressure was applied. A screentone saves an artist's time by allowing quick application of textures to line art where a hand-shaded area would not be reproduced in a timely or acceptable manner. Much like halftone, the size and spacing of black dots, lines, or hatches determine how light or dark an area will appear. Visual artists need to take into account how much an image will be reduced when prepared for publication when choosing the pitch of a screentone.

Screentones can also be layered to produce interference patterns such as moire effects, or to simulate multiple sources of shadow in an image. Different styles of screentone exist, variously intended to depict clothing, clouds, emotions, backgrounds, gradients and even objects such as trees. While the sheets are most commonly produced with black ink, there are also varieties in solid and patterned colors.Screentones can also be modified by lightly scratching the backing with an X-Acto blade to produce starbursts and other special effects.

Screentones are widely used by illustrators and artists, especially for cartoons and advertising. Use of the original medium has been declining since the advent of graphics software and desktop publishing, but it is still used, for example, by some Japanese Manga authors (Deleter and Maxon are common names within this specialty). While computer graphics software provides a variety of alternatives to screentone, its appearance is still frequently simulated, to achieve consistency with earlier work or avoid the stereotypical appearance of computer-generated images. It is sometimes accomplished by scanning actual screentone sheets, but original vector or bitmap screen patterns are also used.

Digital Advances in Toning

Digital halftoning has been replacing photographic halftoning since the 1970s when "electronic dot generators" were developed for the film recorder units linked to color drum scanners made by companies such as Crosfield Electronics, Hell and Linotype-Paul. In the 1980s halftoning became available in the new generation of imagesetter film and paper recorders that had been developed from earlier 'laser typesetters'. Unlike pure scanners or pure typesetters, imagesetters could generate all the elements in a page including type, photographs and other graphic objects. Early examples were the widely used Linotype Linotronic 300 and 100 introduced in 1984, which were also the first to offer PostScript RIPs in 1985.

Early laser printers from the late 1970s onward could also generate halftones but their original 300 dpi resolution limited the screen ruling to about 65 lpi. This was improved as higher resolutions of 600 dpi and above, and dithering techniques, were introduced. All halftoning uses a high frequency/low frequency dichotomy. In photographic halftoning, the low frequency attribute is a local area of the output image designated a halftone cell. Each equal-sized cell relates to a corresponding area (size and location) of the continuous-tone input image. Within each cell, the high frequency attribute is a centered variable-sized halftone dot composed of ink or toner. The ratio of the inked area to the non-inked area of the output cell corresponds to the luminance or graylevel of the input cell. From a suitable distance, the human eye averages both the high frequency apparent gray level approximated by the ratio within the cell and the low frequency apparent changes in gray level between adjacent equally-spaced cells and centered dots.

Digital halftoning uses a raster image or bitmap within which each monochrome picture element or pixel may be on or off, ink or no ink. Consequently, to emulate the photographic halftone cell, the digital halftone cell must contain groups of monochrome pixels within the same-sized cell area. The fixed location and size of these monochrome pixels compromises the high frequency/low frequency dichotomy of the photographic halftone method. Clustered multi-pixel dots cannot "grow" incrementally but in jumps of one whole pixel. In addition, the placement of that pixel is slightly off-center. To minimize this compromise, the digital halftone monochrome pixels must be quite small, numbering from 600 to 2,540, or more, pixels per inch. However, digital image processing has also enabled more sophisticated dithering algorithms to decide which pixels to turn black or white, some of which yield better results than digital halftoning.

Typical Resolution of Screentones

The resolution of a halftone screen is measured in lines per inch (lpi). This is the number of lines of dots in one inch, measured parallel with the screen's angle. Known as the screen ruling, the resolution of a screen is written either with the suffix lpi or a hash mark; for example, "150 lpi" or "150#." The higher the pixel resolution of a source file, the greater the detail that can be reproduced. However, such increase also requires a corresponding increase in screen ruling or the output will suffer from posterization. Therefore file resolution is matched to the output resolution.

Screen Printing 45–65 lpi

Laser Printer (300dpi) 65 lpi

Laser Printer (600dpi) 85–105 lpi

Offset Press (newsprint paper) 85 lpi

Offset Press (coated paper) 85–185 lpi

Wikipedia original context

More explanations

Buying Tones on the Internet

Software

Photoshop ($) > see tutorial and brush

Manga Studio ($)

Manga Studio is aimed at desiging manga. The interface of Manga Studio is located in the line of Illustrator. The software multiplies the tool palettes. He offers many features: management layers, converting bitmap drawings in vector mode, multiple tools, brushes or effects, a wide selection of models of pages, and several features to work faster (scripts, use of several instances of the same design)...

Powertone ($ - Japanese Site)

Powertone is made by the same company that makes Manga Studio. It is a filter plug-in for Photoshop and ComicStudio 2.0, so you can tone your page in Photoshop. Though the tone is not vector base, if you mess up, you have to retone it all over again. Powertone only work in Japanese OS. To use it, either you have a Japanese computer, or set your computer to Japanese mode.

If you own Manga Studio 3 EX, the powertone comes free as bonus plug-in. (This is located inside install disk 3, and the name is changed to computone in the English version.) The free computone only works as filter under Manga Studio, and it can't work in Photoshop. It's different from the tone inside Manga Studio tone menu. In extra computone filter, you can set the tone to white ink color instead of only black.

Screentones ready for use

Here is a partial list of traditional screentone retailers.

Letraset Manga ($) > (This is an ideal introduction for Screentone novices! CD and print are available.)

antarctic-press.com ($)

AKA: Akadot ($)

Maxon ( $ - Japanese Site )

Deleter ( $ - Japanese Site )

Freeware Tones on the Internet

Software

Pixia

Pixia, the original Japanese Edition was created and developed by the author, Isao Maruoka, but has also been aggressively raised by its fans, which makes this software to be quite unique and different from other tools.

Texture Processor

Texture Processor is a program for creating various textures. He allows to get practically unlimited quantity of complex textures.

The Rasterbator

The Rasterbator is a software ( Online or Downloadable ) that allows creation of large halftone type posters

Screentones ready for use in Devianart

The links below include free screentones, but the use of some requires a permit! Make sure to read the author's notes and see if credit or permission is required for use!

Use the dA search engine to search for screentones!