Halftone vs Lenticular Printing
ハーフトーン（網点） / レンチキュラー印刷
Both sit in Print Expression, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Halftone
Halftone converts continuous tone into regularly spaced dots of changing size so it can be printed; from a distance they return to tone, while enlargement reveals the screen as material.
Lenticular Printing
Lenticular printing interlaces multiple images into thin alternating strips and aligns them with parallel lenses so one print flips, animates or gains depth as the viewing angle changes.
| Halftone | Lenticular Printing | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1880s– | 1940s– |
| Family | Print Expression | Print Expression |
| Kind | Technique | Technique |
| Cues | Large and small dots on one fixed pitch / Light and shade made by dot area / Rosettes from differently angled color screens / An image that changes between normal and magnified viewing | Two or more images switching with viewing angle / Source frames interlaced into narrow vertical strips / A surface of parallel cylindrical lenses / Depth or motion built from binocular offsets or sequential frames |
| Best used for | Printing photographs in newspapers, magazines and packaging with limited inks · Using enlarged dots to make reproduction and print itself the subject | Making exhibit signs, posters or packaging change along a visitor's path · Putting brief movement or depth into a print without power |
| Type | Choose bold type or simple contours that survive conversion into dots. | Keep type on the same baseline in every frame and avoid strokes too fine for the lens direction. |
| Composition | Place normal-scale image and enlarged screen together to exploit changes in viewing distance. | Set viewing position and movement first; use two frames for a flip or matched sequential frames for motion. |
| Material | Set line frequency, dot shape, screen angle and ink color, then translate tone into dot area. | Interlace to the lens pitch and align the printed strips and lenticular sheet without drift. |
| Caution | Polka dots are not halftone. Dot size must carry continuous tone in relation to printing resolution. | Layered stripes do not make a lenticular. Image pitch, lens pitch, direction and registration must agree before the views separate. |