Print Process beginner mechanicalnostalgicraw

Coarse Halftone

An image broken into visible dots large enough to read as pattern before they read as picture.

What it does

Newsprint historically ran 65 to 85 lines per inch because coarse absorbent paper spreads ink and finer screens fill in. Roy Lichtenstein enlarged the Ben-Day dot until the reproduction method became the subject. Screen angle matters: single-colour work sits at 45 degrees because the eye is least sensitive to diagonal pattern, and process work rotates each channel by 30 degrees to avoid moiré. Getting the angle wrong is the giveaway that an image is imitating print rather than describing it.

The prompt

[Subject] reproduced as a coarse 65-line halftone. Dots large enough to be individually visible at arm's length, screen set at 45 degrees, dot gain closing up the shadows so detail is lost in the darks. Printed single colour black on grey newsprint with visible paper fibre and slight show-through from the reverse. No smooth gradients anywhere; every tone is a dot pattern.

Replace [Subject] with what you are shooting. Everything else is deliberate: the gear, stock and lighting are what push a generator towards this look.

Works well in

Midjourney, FLUX, Stable Diffusion

Pairs with

Punk Xerox Cut-Up Risograph Duotone

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