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Halftone

Halftone
Filter

Reproduces the dot-screen look of newspaper, manga, and offset printing, with Grayscale, RGB, and CMYK modes and eight one-click presets.

The Halftone node's Manga Screentone, CMYK Print, RGB Color Print, Comic Book, Risograph, Pop Art, and Newspaper presets, beside the original poster.
A grid comparing the Halftone node's named preset looks (a grayscale manga screentone, a CMYK print simulation, an RGB print simulation, a comic-book press look, a blue-duotone Risograph look, a yellow/red pop-art look, and a coarse grayscale newspaper look), all applied to the same bold flat-color poster graphic, shown beside the original.

Halftone converts continuous tones into a pattern of dots, lines, or other spot shapes, the technique behind newspaper, comic, manga, and offset printing. Eight presets cover the common looks, starting from Manga Screentone; editing any control switches Preset to Custom.

  • Grayscale mode runs a single screen in editable Paper and Ink colors.
  • RGB screens the three color channels at separate angles.
  • CMYK runs four plates at the US press angles (Cyan 15, Magenta 75, Yellow 0, Black 45), whose separation avoids moire.

Tone stays matched across the five spot shapes, so switching shape changes the texture without lightening or darkening the image.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”

Pins

ImageImage
InputRequired
MaskMask
InputOptional
ImageImage
Output

Preset

PresetChoice
Default: Manga Screentone Range: Custom / Manga Screentone / Newspaper B&W / CMYK Print / RGB Color Print / Comic Book / Risograph (Blue) / Pop Art (Yellow/Red) / Line Screen

One-click looks. Any preset other than Custom overwrites the controls below, and editing a control afterwards switches back to Custom

Screen

ModeChoice
Default: Grayscale Range: Grayscale / RGB / CMYK

Color decomposition.

  • Grayscale: one screen pass, paper/ink colors.
  • RGB: 3 screen passes on R/G/B with separate angles.
  • CMYK: 4 screen passes at traditional US press angles, RGB roundtrip.
Cell SizeNumber
Default: 2.5 Range: 2.0–64.0

Screen cell period in pixels, measured relative to a 1080p reference canvas. Scales proportionally with image height so the visual cell count stays constant across resolutions: e.g. 5 px here = 10 px on a 4K image, 2.5 px on 540p.

Smaller gives finer grain, larger gives chunky dots.

ShapeChoice
Default: Round Range: Round / Square / Diamond / Line / Ellipse

Shape of the halftone dot. Tone stays matched across shapes.

  • Round: the classic dot.
  • Square: axis-aligned squares.
  • Diamond: squares turned 45 degrees.
  • Line: stripes, rotated by the screen angle. Supersample is at least 2x.
  • Ellipse: an oval dot, set by Ellipse Ratio.
Ellipse RatioNumber
Default: 1.00 Range: 0.25–4.00
Ellipse shape only

Axis ratio for the Ellipse spot. 1.0 = round, >1 stretches along u, <1 along v.

Angles

Angle (deg)Number
Default: 22.5 Range: -180.0–180.0
Grayscale mode only

Screen rotation. 45 is the classic look (avoids visible horizontal/vertical alignment)

Red (deg)Number
Default: 15.0 Range: -180.0–180.0
RGB mode only

Red channel screen angle

Green (deg)Number
Default: 75.0 Range: -180.0–180.0
RGB mode only

Green channel screen angle

Blue (deg)Number
Default: 0.0 Range: -180.0–180.0
RGB mode only

Blue channel screen angle

Cyan (deg)Number
Default: 15.0 Range: -180.0–180.0
CMYK mode only

Cyan plate angle

Magenta (deg)Number
Default: 75.0 Range: -180.0–180.0
CMYK mode only

Magenta plate angle

Yellow (deg)Number
Default: 0.0 Range: -180.0–180.0
CMYK mode only

Yellow plate angle

Black (deg)Number
Default: 45.0 Range: -180.0–180.0
CMYK mode only

Black plate angle. Default 15/75/0/45 is the US press convention (30 deg separation avoids moire rosette collapse)

Tone

ContrastNumber
Default: 1.10 Range: 0.00–2.00

Pre-threshold input multiplier. Widens highlight/shadow rolloff

GammaNumber
Default: 1.00 Range: 0.25–4.00

Pre-threshold tone curve. <1 darkens midtones, >1 brightens midtones.

SupersampleInteger
Default: 2 Range: 1–4

Subpixel samples per cell for anti-aliasing.

  • 1x: fastest, hard-edged dots.
  • 2x: recommended for live tweaking.
  • 4x: smoothest, ~2x slower than 2x.

Line shape forces >= 2x.

InvertToggle
Default: false

Reverses which tones grow the dots. When off, Grayscale dots grow in the shadows, and RGB and CMYK dots grow where each channel is bright

Color

PaperColor (RGBA)
Default: rgba(255, 255, 255, 255)
Grayscale mode only

Paper color

InkColor (RGBA)
Default: rgba(0, 0, 0, 255)
Grayscale mode only

Ink color

Mask

Mask FromChoice
Default: Luminance
Color image connected to the mask input

How the connected color image is read as a mask

  • LuminanceRead the image's brightness as the mask. The default.
  • AlphaRead the image's transparency as the mask.
  • RedUse the red channel as the mask.
  • GreenUse the green channel as the mask.
  • BlueUse the blue channel as the mask.
Mask FitChoice
Default: Stretch
Mask connected

How the mask is mapped when it doesn't match the image

  • None (native size)Center the mask at its native size, with no resizing. Unmasked regions are unaffected.
  • StretchStretch the mask to exactly match the image dimensions. May distort the mask shape.
  • Fit (letterbox)Scale the mask to fit inside the image, preserving aspect ratio. Letterboxes where needed.
  • Fill (crop)Scale the mask to fill the image, preserving aspect ratio. Crops edges if aspect ratios differ.

Usage Tips

Section titled “Usage Tips”
  • Cell Size is measured against a 1080p canvas and scales with image height, so the dot count stays the same at any resolution. Keep it near the default 2.5 px for a fine magazine print; push it to 12 or more for chunky pop art.
  • Use Manga Screentone with the Line shape for action panels, and CMYK Print for a full-color comic.
  • Connect a mask to halftone only the subject and keep the background continuous-tone.
  • With the Ellipse shape, set Ellipse Ratio above 1 for stretched dots that read as a directional texture.
Section titled “Related Nodes”