Halftone Screen Printing

Why we love this classic screen printing technique & how using it, can save you money on your next screen printing t-shirt project!

Halftone Screen Printing-

is the action of printing a concentration of dots like pointillism artwork, to create shadows and details of an image with 1-2 colors. This gives artwork a Lo-Fi look. It’s a creative decision to use half-tone screen printing when working with a graphic designer which can be easily created in a design software.

What does it mean to Halftone Screen Print?

Halftone Screen Printing is usually 1 color artwork and creates definition with a concentration of dots so an area that looks like it has heavy shading might have a higher concentration of dots whereas a section that is lighter might have more space between the dots.

Where Have you Seen Halftone Screen Printing?

This creates a Lo-Fi half-tone gradient illusion. You might have seen Half-tone printing in old magazines or newspapers or in the stylistic half-tone screen printed artwork of Andy Warhol. It’s also been a pop-culture classic comic artists such as blank and blank.

When to decide to Halftone Screen Print?

When you want to create a rock n roll vintage vibe, adding half-tone printing is a great way to emulate that.

If you are trying to create a retro super-hero graphic

If you wish to create a vintage, pin-up comic graphic

There is a cost benefit to using this technique because typically you’re paying for 1-2 colors instead of a 5 color t-shirt for example. It eliminates the need for more colors by using the concentration of dots to create shadow, instead of a separate color shade.

How to create a Halftone Screen Printing look:

It begins with the artwork and can easily be done in Photoshop. Or there are online apps and websites where you can simply upload your artwork to give your artwork a Halftone printed look. Then, use Seattle Screen Printing T-Shirt Designer to build and design your screen printed t-shirt online!

Open up Photoshop:
Set the Foreground color in your toolbar to the color you want to use. In this example, I am using black.

Before:

3. In Photoshop, go to: Menu- Filter-Filter Gallery-

4. Find the SKETCH Folder- Halftone. From you can adjust the contrast and dot size.

After:

Close-up

Notice how the dots create the shadows and depth? If you need some help deciding if Halftone Screen Printing is for you, Seattle Screen Printing has on site graphic designers and T-shirt Guru’s are available to help answer any questions you might have.