Vector halftone dots and lines in Vectornation by Zaweba

Halftone is the old printer's trick of turning shades into dots of different sizes. Seen from a distance, big dots read as dark and small ones as light. It is also a look in its own right, on posters, T shirts, comic panels and screen prints. Vector halftone in Vectornation by Zaweba builds that look from real vector shapes, so it stays sharp at any size.

You find it at Object > Image > Vector halftone. It turns a placed image into a pattern of shapes laid on a screen angle.

Shapes, angle and colour

The dot shape changes the character a lot. Round dots give the classic newspaper look. Squares and diamonds feel more graphic and mechanical. Ellipses run together into chains in the midtones, which softens the image. Lines give an engraved or screen printed feel, with heavier lines for darker areas.

The screen angle tilts the grid. A straight grid looks deliberately digital, and an angled one reads as more traditional print.

Colour has three choices. One ink gives a single colour halftone, ideal for one colour screen printing or a bold poster. The image's colours keeps each dot the colour of the picture beneath it, a lively effect for illustrations. Four CMYK screens builds cyan, magenta, yellow and black halftones, each on its own screen, the way a full colour print is made.

Picking the right source

The halftone follows the tones of the placed image, so the image decides the result. Strong contrast and a clear subject work best. A flat, grey photo turns into a flat, grey field of dots. If the source is weak, adjust it before halftoning, or choose a different photo.

Crop to what matters first. Halftoning a whole holiday photo when you want only the face makes far more shapes than you need. Crop image in the image tools trims the placed picture before you start.

Size and density

Halftone makes a lot of shapes. A large image with a fine screen can turn into many thousands of objects, which makes the file heavier and slower to move around. Choose a dot size that reads well at the size the artwork will be seen. A poster across a room can take big dots, a business card needs smaller ones but fewer of them because it is small.

For one colour screen printing, think about what the screen can hold. Very small dots in the highlights may not print. Coarser dots are safer.

Using the result

Because the dots are ordinary vector shapes, everything else in the app applies. Recolour a one ink halftone to a spot colour, or put it on its own layer above a flat background. For a print job, the CMYK option fits with Vectornation's separations preview and print output, where each ink shows on its own plate.

Since the source image is placed, you can keep it hidden underneath as a reference, or remove it once you are happy with the halftone.

Halftone pitfalls

Expecting a photographic result from a coarse screen is the first. Halftone simplifies, and that is the point. If every detail must survive, the screen needs to be finer, and the file grows with it.

The second is forgetting the final size. Judge the halftone at the size it will print, not zoomed in on screen, where dots look larger and rougher than they will on paper.