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Amount | The number of lines in the pattern horizontally. This is based on the width of the project. Increase for a finer pattern with more lines, decrease for a coarser patern with fewer lines. Range: 0 to 500; Default: 100 |
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Strength | The sensity of the line width to the luminance of the color in the original layer. Range: 0 to 1; Default: 0.50 |
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Angle | The angle of the lines in degrees clockwise (use 0º for horizontal lines). Range: 0º to 3600º; Default: 45º |
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Phase | The phase of lines in the pattern. Changing this shifts the lines in a direction perpendicular to the Angle. Whole numbers of phase such as 1.0, 2.0 and so on represent the same pattern, so start and end with the same fractional part if you want to make a loopable animation. Range: -1000 to 1000; Default: 0 |
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Color 1 | The color of the lines. Use a color darker than the background for realistic results. Default: |
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Color 2 | The color of the background. Use a color lighter than the lines for realistic results. Default: |
Usage
Halftone printing is a method of creating the appearance of continuous shades by printing dots of varying sizes in a single color. A less common stylistic varation is to use lines of varying width instead of dots. This effect simulates the appearance of that printing process. It works best with image and video layers, or layers containing multiple colors or smooth gradients.
To use this effect, start by adjusting Strength until you can see the pattern of lines (if it's too high or low you'll just get a solid color), then fine tune Amount until you obtain the line width you want.
Tip: Blur First!
The luminance sample that determines the width of a segment of the line comes from the original color of the layer in the exact middle of the line (where the line would be if it were only one pixel wide). This means that if the phase shifts just slightly, high frequency changes in the original color of the layer can cause a lot of "jittering" of the line width. If this is not desired, use a weak Gaussian Blur on the layer before applying this effect.
Use Cases
- Comic Book Shading: Simulate comic book fills by applying this effect to a shape layer with a gradient fill.
- Printed Media Look: Apply to a photo or image to make it look like it was printed in a comic book or newspaper.