Paint Shop Pro support - How to make a halftone?

Author

How to make a halftone?

Mason C

2007-07-14, 6:19 pm

I have maps with gray nations. For the printer these need
to be halftone.

I can laser print and produce a halftone, then scan at high
resolution to get a halftone image. This works in principle but
not very good in practice on my machines.

Is there any way to convert gray to halftone directly in PSP?

I know the "reduce to two colors" is a possibility but the
printer may not like Stucki, Floyd, Burkes dots.

If my printer can make halftones, why can't PSP?

Mason C

Trev

2007-07-14, 6:19 pm

"Mason C" <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote in message
news:6fbi93pone20n62v8j5d7dqt4nbusb7n6i@4ax.com...
>I have maps with gray nations. For the printer these need
> to be halftone.
>
> I can laser print and produce a halftone, then scan at high
> resolution to get a halftone image. This works in principle but
> not very good in practice on my machines.
>
> Is there any way to convert gray to halftone directly in PSP?
>
> I know the "reduce to two colors" is a possibility but the
> printer may not like Stucki, Floyd, Burkes dots.
>
> If my printer can make halftones, why can't PSP?
>
> Mason C
Its more an effect then the use of a Line screen But effects artistic
halftone will add dots.

Fred Hiltz

2007-07-14, 6:19 pm

Trev wrote:
> "Mason C" <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Its more an effect then the use of a Line screen But effects
> artistic halftone will add dots.

You have chosen not to reveal your version, but PSP 8 and later set
the screen properties with this Effects > Artistic Effects >
Halftone. There's a plug-in for earlier versions.
--
Fred Hiltz, fhiltz at yahoo dot com

RonV

2007-07-15, 3:18 am

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:16:42 GMT, Mason C
<masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:

>I have maps with gray nations. For the printer these need
>to be halftone.
>
>I can laser print and produce a halftone, then scan at high
>resolution to get a halftone image. This works in principle but
>not very good in practice on my machines.
>
>Is there any way to convert gray to halftone directly in PSP?
>
>I know the "reduce to two colors" is a possibility but the
>printer may not like Stucki, Floyd, Burkes dots.
>
>If my printer can make halftones, why can't PSP?
>
> Mason C
All versions can do a color reduction.

as an example, in v7, do a
Colors>Color Reduction>2

Set Gray, then Error Diffusion with one of the 3 modes:
Floyd, Burkes, or Stucki

Then weighted or un weighted.

I'd make up a test image of combinations of the 3 x 2 selections and
print to see which reduction creates the most pleasing effect on your
printer. And be sure to print at one pixel to one printer dot to get
the best effect.

Set the size of the image first, using your printer's dpi value to set
the PPI value in PSP. Then do the above conversion.

Ron

Mason C

2007-07-15, 3:18 am

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:16:42 GMT, Mason C <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:

>I have maps with gray nations. For the printer these need
>to be halftone.
>
>I can laser print and produce a halftone, then scan at high
>resolution to get a halftone image. This works in principle but
>not very good in practice on my machines.
>
>Is there any way to convert gray to halftone directly in PSP?
>
>I know the "reduce to two colors" is a possibility but the
>printer may not like Stucki, Floyd, Burkes dots.
>
>If my printer can make halftones, why can't PSP?
>
> Mason C

PSP 8.01 "Effects artistic halftone" is what I needed.

I had looked in Help for "halftone" and found nothing so
assumed there was nothing. I might never have found it.

Thanks ever so much for all the time you've saved me.

Mason C ( I'll post my book someday )

awww, cheez, I posted the wrong place !

Mason C

2007-07-15, 3:18 am

On Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:43:22 GMT, RonV <RonVick@Nospam.com> wrote:

>On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:16:42 GMT, Mason C
><masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:
>
>All versions can do a color reduction.
>
>as an example, in v7, do a
>Colors>Color Reduction>2
>
>Set Gray, then Error Diffusion with one of the 3 modes:
> Floyd, Burkes, or Stucki
>
>Then weighted or un weighted.
>
>I'd make up a test image of combinations of the 3 x 2 selections and
>print to see which reduction creates the most pleasing effect on your
>printer. And be sure to print at one pixel to one printer dot to get
>the best effect.
>
>Set the size of the image first, using your printer's dpi value to set
>the PPI value in PSP. Then do the above conversion.
>
>Ron

Thanks for the suggestions.

I should have explained that it is the Book Printer corporation that
expects halftone. My personal printer is somewhat beside the point.
Not to say that Floyd et al "dots" might not work.

A constant dot shape and spacing (halftone), and perhaps a certain
angle, may be desirable or necessary for the printing press.

Mason C

Owen Ransen

2007-07-15, 6:14 am

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:16:42 GMT, Mason C
<masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:

>I can laser print and produce a halftone, then scan at high
>resolution to get a halftone image. This works in principle but
>not very good in practice on my machines.

If you need vector output (PostScript) of halftone you can use this:

http://www.ransen.com/repligator/Newsprint.htm

The rasterised images are not such a good demonstration though.

Easy to use graphics effects:
http://www.ransen.com/

Mason C

2007-08-12, 6:14 am

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:16:42 GMT, Mason C <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:

>I have maps with gray nations. For the printer these need
>to be halftone.
>
>I can laser print and produce a halftone, then scan at high
>resolution to get a halftone image. This works in principle but
>not very good in practice on my machines.
>
>Is there any way to convert gray to halftone directly in PSP?
>
>I know the "reduce to two colors" is a possibility but the
>printer may not like Stucki, Floyd, Burkes dots.
>
>If my printer can make halftones, why can't PSP?
>
> Mason C

Trev and Fred got me onto Effects, Artistic Effects, Halftone and
thanks, it will work for me.

One slight problem: the half-tone dots join into the border lines with
the effect of thickening the lines in an irregular way. (this doesn't
happen if I print the gray graphic and scan it -- tedious halftone)

I wonder if anyone has a solution to this problem. I've made a
few experiments with blurring etc. with no success.

Mason C

Fred Hiltz

2007-08-12, 6:18 pm

Mason C wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:16:42 GMT, Mason C
> <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
> Trev and Fred got me onto Effects, Artistic Effects, Halftone
> and thanks, it will work for me.
>
> One slight problem: the half-tone dots join into the border
> lines with the effect of thickening the lines in an irregular
> way. (this doesn't happen if I print the gray graphic and
> scan it -- tedious halftone)

That is hard for me to visualize, but guessing at what you are
seeing, how about adding the border after making the halftone
effect? Apparently you do not want the border itself to be halftone.

Could you post a sample image somewhere, or switch to the Corel PSP
newsgroups where attachments are permitted?
--
Fred Hiltz, fhiltz at yahoo dot com

Mason C

2007-08-13, 3:19 am

On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:57:52 GMT, "Fred Hiltz" <not@home.ca> wrote:

>Mason C wrote:

snipped extraneous
[color=darkred]
>
>That is hard for me to visualize, but guessing at what you are
>seeing, how about adding the border after making the halftone
>effect? Apparently you do not want the border itself to be halftone.
>
>Could you post a sample image somewhere, or switch to the Corel PSP
>newsgroups where attachments are permitted?

I looked at Corel groups and found things confusing -- I try later.

Here's a sample:

http://home.earthlink.net/~frontal-...ftonesample.gif

Along the lines are large dots that make the line look rough and
thicker.

My procedure:

1. On an outline drawing (think map of U.S. showing states)
I fill in the areas with four well-chosen light colors.

2. In Effects, Artistic Effects, Halftone I use "Round 6 dots,
RGB all at same angel, check and Overlay 100"

Then with some labor I reduce this to black and white.

The result is ok except for the annoying dots on the lines.
It seems that the PSP halftone algorithm wants to halftone the
black lines. The printer does not do this when it halftones
gray areas.

I do not know how to add border lines to an area having
only different colors to distinguish them. Magic wand will
delineate them, but then what to do? And if the area is
only dots the wand won't work.

Mason C

Trev

2007-08-13, 6:16 am

"Mason C" <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote in message
news:knuvb3l07f0vfrnt60rsijj6ktogkj3uha@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:57:52 GMT, "Fred Hiltz" <not@home.ca> wrote:
>
>
> snipped extraneous
>
>
> I looked at Corel groups and found things confusing -- I try later.
>
> Here's a sample:
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~frontal-...ftonesample.gif
>
> Along the lines are large dots that make the line look rough and
> thicker.
>
> My procedure:
>
> 1. On an outline drawing (think map of U.S. showing states)
> I fill in the areas with four well-chosen light colors.
>
> 2. In Effects, Artistic Effects, Halftone I use "Round 6 dots,
> RGB all at same angel, check and Overlay 100"
>
> Then with some labor I reduce this to black and white.
>
> The result is ok except for the annoying dots on the lines.
> It seems that the PSP halftone algorithm wants to halftone the
> black lines. The printer does not do this when it halftones
> gray areas.
>
> I do not know how to add border lines to an area having
> only different colors to distinguish them. Magic wand will
> delineate them, but then what to do? And if the area is
> only dots the wand won't work.
>
> Mason C

Some thought's.
When you made your initial selection to fill in you could have saved the
selection to alpha channel to recall later Give it a name for each one the
limit is something like 100 channels.
You cold have promoted to a layer enabling the processing to be limited to
just that layer and all flattened at the end.
see also selections modify > select selection borders where you can add a
border around a selection (see first thought) inside of or out side or both.

Fred Hiltz

2007-08-13, 6:16 am

Mason C wrote:
[snip]
> I looked at Corel groups and found things confusing -- I try
> later.
>
> Here's a sample:
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~frontal-...ftonesample.gif

Excellent! Trev has answered the halftone question. The Corel
newsgroups work just like this one in OE. JoeB posted all their
addresses last Friday, Aug 10, in the "How to create 'auroras'"
thread. Click on one of the addresses to open it in OE.
--
Fred Hiltz, fhiltz at yahoo dot com

Mason C

2007-08-14, 10:18 pm

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:27:26 +0100, "Trev" <trevbowdenAT.dsl.pipex.COM> wrote:

>
>"Mason C" <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote in message
>news:knuvb3l07f0vfrnt60rsijj6ktogkj3uha@4ax.com...
>
>Some thought's.
>When you made your initial selection to fill in you could have saved the
>selection to alpha channel to recall later Give it a name for each one the
>limit is something like 100 channels.
>You cold have promoted to a layer enabling the processing to be limited to
>just that layer and all flattened at the end.
>see also selections modify > select selection borders where you can add a
>border around a selection (see first thought) inside of or out side or both.
>
Oye Oye Oye and Wow! This project is getting out of hand.
Maybe I can bring it back to Earth:

1. Have an outline "map" -- a line illustration needing gray areas.
2. Color it pastels or grays. The choices are critical but once you have
them.... (for me r, g, and b = 165, 185, 195, 215 grays look good).
3. Print-to-file to a postscript printer (no need to have the printer).
4. With GhostScript Viewer, convert the ps file to a bitmap.

Now you've got a half-toned graphic. ( I thought I had a new idea
but found not so.) But this sure beats laboring in PSP.

Time needed to half-tone a tinted map: about ten seconds
tapping a few buttons.

And I still don't understand why PSP can't do what every black/white
printer driver can do. (I did pick up a hint that Adobe does it.)

Mason C

Mason C

2007-08-18, 10:17 pm

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:16:42 GMT, Mason C <masonc2XXX@XXXearthlink.net> wrote:

>I have maps with gray nations. For the printer these need
>to be halftone.
>
>I can laser print and produce a halftone, then scan at high
>resolution to get a halftone image. This works in principle but
>not very good in practice on my machines.
>
>Is there any way to convert gray to halftone directly in PSP?
>
>I know the "reduce to two colors" is a possibility but the
>printer may not like Stucki, Floyd, Burkes dots.
>
>If my printer can make halftones, why can't PSP?
>
> Mason C

Having asked the question and tried alternatives, it's only
fair to display my "final" solution: using postscript:

http://masonc.home.netcom.com/half-tones.html

PSP plays only a secondary role in this: to make the
original graphic and to recover it from Ghostscript.
The method, once established, is very quick and simple.

Mason C