halftone

[ haf-tohn, hahf- ]
See synonyms for halftone on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Also called middle-tone. (in painting, drawing, graphics, photography, etc.) a value intermediate between light and dark.

  2. Printing.

    • a process in which gradation of tone in an image is conveyed by first photographing the image through a screen to break up the continuous tones of the image into minute, closely spaced dots, then using the print obtained to produce a metal plate by photoengraving, and finally using the plate to reproduce the original image by letterpress or offset printing.

    • the metal plate used in such a process.

    • the print obtained in such a process.: Compare line cut.

adjective
  1. pertaining to, using, used in, or produced by the halftone process: a halftone screen; a halftone print.

Origin of halftone

1
First recorded in 1645–55; half + tone

Other definitions for half tone (2 of 2)

half tone

nounMusic.

Origin of half tone

2
First recorded in 1645–55

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use halftone in a sentence

  • One missed the delicate half-tones on the prairie, but one heard and thrilled to the ringing note of endeavor.

    The Girl From Keller's | Harold Bindloss
  • These may be photographs, half-tones, like the illustrations in this book, or engravings.

    Great Artists, Vol 1. | Jennie Ellis Keysor
  • Nature's pattern-book, too, is full of half tones and mixed tints.

    Line and Form (1900) | Walter Crane
  • The gray half-tones of daybreak are not the gray half-tones of the day's close, though the degree of their shade may be the same.

  • It was a phrase of song, a wandering strain in half tones and fluted accidentals, not unmelodious.

British Dictionary definitions for halftone

halftone

/ (ˈhɑːfˌtəʊn) /


noun
    • a process used to reproduce an illustration by photographing it through a fine screen to break it up into dots

    • the etched plate thus obtained

    • the print obtained from such a plate

  1. art a tonal value midway between highlight and dark shading

  1. music, US and Canadian another word for semitone

adjective
  1. relating to, used in, or made by halftone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012