Halftone vs Stippling
ハーフトーン（網点） / スティップリング（点描陰影）
Halftone comes from Print Expression and Stippling from Hand-drawn. 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.
Stippling
Stippling builds light, volume and surface through the density and size of tiny dots; tone rises from sparse to dense without filling contours with lines.
| Halftone | Stippling | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1880s– | 16th century– |
| Family | Print Expression | Hand-drawn |
| 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 | Countless small dots filling a contour / Narrower spacing in darker areas / Soft tone without hatched lines / Grain up close and smooth volume at distance |
| Best used for | Printing photographs in newspapers, magazines and packaging with limited inks · Using enlarged dots to make reproduction and print itself the subject | Scientific illustration, natural history and portraiture with delicate volume · Giving packaging and posters quiet hand-built grain |
| Type | Choose bold type or simple contours that survive conversion into dots. | Use a fine serif or small capitals with enough air from dotted fields. |
| Composition | Place normal-scale image and enlarged screen together to exploit changes in viewing distance. | Begin at the darkest point and build the subject by density rather than outline. |
| Material | Set line frequency, dot shape, screen angle and ink color, then translate tone into dot area. | Keep one nib size and vary spacing more than dot size to construct tone. |
| Caution | Polka dots are not halftone. Dot size must carry continuous tone in relation to printing resolution. | Random noise and halftone are different. Each dot's density must explain form and light. |