halftone
Americannoun
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Also called middle-tone. (in painting, drawing, graphics, photography, etc.) a value intermediate between light and dark.
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Printing.
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a process in which gradation of tone in an image is conveyed by first photographing the image through a screen to break up the continuous tones of the image into minute, closely spaced dots, then using the print obtained to produce a metal plate by photoengraving, and finally using the plate to reproduce the original image by letterpress or offset printing.
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the metal plate used in such a process.
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the print obtained in such a process.
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adjective
noun
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a process used to reproduce an illustration by photographing it through a fine screen to break it up into dots
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the etched plate thus obtained
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the print obtained from such a plate
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art a tonal value midway between highlight and dark shading
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music another word for semitone
adjective
Etymology
Origin of halftone
Vocabulary lists containing halftone
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By carefully designing the halftone patterns, they encoded the Mona Lisa image into flat films that later transformed into three-dimensional forms.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2026
TJ: I’ve been using the halftone line to transform my mother’s images and cause them to intersect and intertwine with my images of moments that I’ve had since coming out of isolation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023
She covers these turbid, hot-colored grounds with those deft black lines and smudges, plus airbrushed spumes of white or red, and also multicolored halftone dots that form a bridge between image and information.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2021
A crucial contrast to Jackson’s over-manipulations is seen in some footage of contemporaneous newspaper photographs, shown in extreme closeup, with their halftone dots rivalling the image itself in prominence.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 19, 2019
Relief Engravings By Joseph P. Donovan Brief history and non-technical description of modern methods of engraving; woodcut, zinc plate, halftone; kind of copy for reproduction; things to remember when ordering engravings.
From The Uses of Italic A Primer of Information Regarding the Origin and Uses of Italic Letters by Frederick W. (Frederick William) Hamilton
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