Besides being a graphic artist, I am also an unabashed comic
book nerd. And if you’re like me, you’ve probably stared at superheroes and
action-filled pages long enough to know that comics are printed using only four
colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (abbreviated CMYK—K stands for Black).
These four colors are printed in patterns of small dots that
visually mix together to create every color of your favorite superhero’s
dashing costume.
What you might not know is that this pattern of small dots
is called a halftone, and it has saved printers of comic books—and nearly every
other printed publication—money on ink for over a century. As it turns out,
halftones work just as well when screen printing apparel.
How can halftones help you save money on your branded apparel? Keep reading to find out.
Behind The Mild
Mannered Alter Ego
Halftones are already at work in your desktop printer, where
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black are laid out in dot patterns to reproduce
photo-realistic images, tricking the eye into thinking there are more colors
than there really are. So how do halftones work, exactly?
Simply put, the eye likes to simplify what it sees. Printing
a very small red dot next to a very small yellow dot makes the eye think it’s
looking at an orange dot. Consider how many ways colors can be mixed together
and you can literally see how halftones offer nearly limitless possibilities.
Halftone Super-Powers
101
In screen printing, all colors—even solid colors—are printed
using a grid of dots when the ink gets pushed through the holes in the screen.
Halftones just push less ink through the screen, creating the illusion of a new
color. A halftone of solid red, for example, makes an effective pink. That
one-color budget just bought you two colors! 
But that’s not all halftones can do; you can also have a
color fade from a solid to a
halftone, creating a 3D look! And what comic book nerd didn’t look forward to
putting on his 3D glasses? Using halftone fades will make your designs really
POP! 
Combining colors offers even more possibilities! Overlapping
two halftone fades creates an eye-catching visual transition called a blend that simulates a third color. By
blending three inks, you can create nearly every color of the rainbow!
Wise Man Say
Whatever number of colors fits your screen printing budget,
halftones offer you the chance to get one or two more colors out of your design
for the same super-powered price! Here are some guidelines to use your newfound
abilities wisely:
--Only use fades
of dark colors on light-colored shirts, and vice versa. Blends can be used on any color shirt!
--Avoid stretching your halftone too far! Using a solid
color in the same design as a very light halftone may require using another
screen to get the colors to look right, at which point you might as well use
two different colors anyway. If the colors you want to use are that different,
you might consider working an extra color into your budget.
--Avoid using halftones as a skin tone. If you do, only do
it on white shirts with warm-colored inks (orange, red, or warm browns). Even
then, it might take a couple tries to get it right. If you can’t do without a
skin tone, you might consider working an extra color into your budget.
Up, Up, and Away!
Talk to your friendly neighborhood graphic artist if you
have any questions about halftones, or pick up the bat-phone and ask a Customer
Support Associate about other ways you can make the most of your marketing
budget!
Next time you’re out in the world, get up close and personal
with the printed materials around you; you’d be surprised how many halftones
are hiding their money-saving secret identities in plain sight!
By: Wm Jay Carter III, Graphic Artist and Unabashed Comic Book Nerd
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