Halftones

Configuring the printer through the control panel is described in chapter 4, “Printer Configuration,” of this manual.

Halftones

The ability of the printer to produce halftones allows you to add scanned images or halftone graphics to your documents. This section will explain some of the options available on the QMS 4060 for half- tone printing.

What are Halftones?

Continuous tone scanned images have to be converted to dot pattern images on a laser printer. Laser printers, like printing presses, only have the ability to print patterns of dots controlled by turning on and off the laser. Because of the limited resolving power of the eye half- tones appear as continuous tone images. For an example hold a newspaper photograph very close to your eyes to see the halftone dots.

Halftone characteristics can be changed by settings available on your QMS 4060 Print System. The following factors can be used to adjust the halftone characteristics of your documents.

nPrinter resolution

nScreen frequency and screen angles (Halftone types)

There can be some side effects to changing these factors. Factors such as the number of gray levels, printer performance, and scanned image quality can be affected.

Gray Levels

Gray levels are a progressive series of gray tones between black and white. Gray levels are produced by varying the ratio of black to white halftone dots. The number of gray levels depends on printer resolution and screen frequency.

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QMS 4060 Print System Reference