Wasatch Halftone Effects add "pinholes" or "break line" patterns to your printed graphic, allowing designs to "breathe" and stretch with fabric without causing cracking within the design. Custom effects to benefit "hand feel" and durability can be created here.
Controls are provided to support the application of digital halftones, with variable lpi, angles, ellipses, and density (or coverage by the halftone). These controls allow for thousands of variations, including various "retro" effects, and higher-lpi pinhole or break line effects. Halftone effects defined in this way are embedded into Wasatch Imaging Configurations, to be used as stable components of production workflows. They can also be saved to a library folder, for easy sharing between different configurations and different systems.
Find Halftone Effects under "Color" on Wasatch SoftRIP's main menu, or on the color transforms window.
Some good starting points can be selected from the "Current Effect" drop list. After that, "Application" and "Spot Function" provide access to variations on the use of digital halftone effects.
When designing new effects, it is a good practice to test by using "RIP Only" to place an entry into the Print Queue, and to then right click on that entry and use Data View to see the actual effect in raw output data. This can save a lot of time and trouble when used to experiment prior to testing with actual prints.
Application
The "HOLES" application uses the digital halftone to punch holes through the printed layers of ink. Large elliptical holes, around two lpi, can be used for various sorts of sport mesh effects, and finer holes, around 35lpi, may improve hand feel by introducing regular pinholes to the print. See Wasatch marketing videos for some obvious illustrations.
The "DURABILITYWHITE" application is specifically designed for use with the "Replace black ink with black substrate" white generation method. When used properly, it organizes the halftone into an AM pattern in areas where ink fades to fabric. This may improve durability in DTF prints.
The "SIMPLEHALFTONE" application replaces the normal digital FM halftone with an AM screen, for "retro" print effects.
Spot Function
Classic halftone spots such as "EUCLIDEANSPOT" and "ROUNDSPOT" are included. In addition to this are Wasatch special spot functions, such as "SPORTMESHSPOT" and "CROSSMESHSPOT", for popular garment-oriented effects.
Halftone Geometry Controls
Classic digital halftoning controls for lpi, angles, ellipses, and density are all available, making thousands of variations possible. For the "HOLES" application, note that increasing "density" actually makes the holes larger.
Notes
An area for notes is provided, and we strongly recommend updating it and maintaining it for creative new effects.
Save Settings to Library
This allows you to save your creative work to an XML file in the subfolder "halftoneEffects". From there it can quickly be selected for use in alternative Imaging Configurations, or transferred to other systems, to install your effect on other installations of Wasatch SoftRIP.
These tools all act together to allow your production shop to create its own special set of options for digital DTF or DTG printing.
|
Halftone Effects