Along with tone and color rendition, the quality of a printed half-tone is determined by its sharpness and definition. At least three periodic processes change the continuous tone image into small fragments during reproduction. The scan lines of the input and output devices and the pattern of the halftone all limit the frequency spectra of the b&w image, and with 4 color printing there are three additional halftone patterns for the C, M and Y to interfere. Beginning with image capture, the resolution of the sampling process establishes a trade off between maintaining fine detail and the volume of input data to be processed.Currently there are a variety of tools available to enhance the detail in an image. Unsharp masking and other filters are used to compensate for the lack of scanning resolution or to enhance detail beyond what was available in the original image. We have developed adaptive halftone screening technology because none of the existing techniques for improving image detail compensate for the loss of detail created by the halftone screening process itself. We will discuss here the effects of our screening technology in relation to the content of the original image, to the type of printed product, to the amount of correction and the viewing conditions.
Yuri V. Kuznetsov, Andrey A. Schadenko, Inna V. Kostiuk, Paul A. Wolneykien, David J. Flanagan, "The Processing of Fine Detail for Digital Halftone Printing" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies (NIP20), 2004, pp 632 - 637, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2004.20.1.art00026_2