Screen Printing Forum

Is there some sort of a standard or rule of thumb when it comes to printing halftones. So as to avoid morray problems. That is, is there a correct angle & frequency for each different mesh count?????

Try this: (its a basic formula but it'll help you get started)

mesh count/4= frequency
As for an angle use 22.5° for one color, each color after increase by 30°

Hopes this helps

halftones are fine... I use them daily.

45 is a good standard angle

as far as DPI it depends on the color of the shirt and the image itself

33 dpi is good for dark shirts... gives you a nice size dot

53 dpi is what I run on almost everything

83 dpi+ is what I run my process stuff at

You will prolly get a million different opinions on this question. but the best answer is EXPERIMENT

I use 55-60 dpi for my process jobs. For just halftones I use as low as I can get away with, but then I like the big dots - they just look bolder.

Everything depends on what type of art / file you are printing.

For 4 color process (CMYK) I choose this (NOTE THE PRINT ORDER):

Yellow FREQUENCY: 85 ANGLE: 25
Magenta FREQUENCY: 85 ANGLE: 45
Cyan FREQUENCY: 85 ANGLE: 75
Black FREQUENCY: 85 ANGLE: 75

All Spots:

FREQUENCY: 85 ANGLE: 22.5

For issues concerning moire:

I've never had half tone moire issues with Vector based art, I use 230 mesh for Spots and 110 for unberbases. I have experienced banding with gradients used in vector based art. There's a lot less control.

If you are talking about continuos tones, such as photographic art for spot process or 4 color process (like PhotoShop files or "Raster images"), then consider experimenting with the smallest dot you can hold. Usually most shops work with 10 - 8 % being the smallest dot, thus eliminating moire. I always mesh these types of jobs on 355 or 230.

As always if your films are registered nice and neat you can avoid moire that way too.

Rule of thumb: mesh divided by 4 = dot frequency minumum

SIngle color halftones or white dominant halftones on darks -- 45 degrees.

I've done 30 degrees/color difference but I'm into messing with the other rccomendations here too.

Experiment if you can! The above has worked for live jobs for me.

The rule of thumb is five times your frequency for your mesh count.

You want to stay away from 0 and 90 degree angles on single color or process.

7.5 - Y
22.5 - C
37.5 - K
82.5 - M

Can you lower the mesh with that formula?

With the my formula I get a more' using a 230 mesh and a 53 lpi halftone frequency. Had that hard lesson tonight. I'd usually use 260 or 305 for 53 tho.

Dot shape is very important too.
HeavyEllipse produces much less moiree than ellipse.

I print usually 100lpi CMYK with 180 threads/cm mesh(industrial DVD-label printing).
Only halftones from 0 - 5 % are lost but no moiree.
It is possible to print even higher lpi with HeavyEllipse.
With 150 lpi 0 - 28% halftones will be lost but still no moiree.