Electronic screening

Claim 1

A method of forming a plurality of printing screens, each having a selected frequency and angle, from a single masterdot of size m elements by m elements, the elements of said masterdot specifying a weight to be accorded a printing signal in the position corresponding to the element, comprising the steps of: A. selecting a macrodot size for a first of said screens as the ratio of the screening resolution and the line frequency to be used, B. selecting a macrodot size for a second of said screens as the product of the selected macrodot size for said first screen and an angle factor selected from the group comprising small whole numbers and small integer fractions, C. changing, as necessary, the macrodot size for one of said screens to the nearest integer having the property such that the ratio of the macrodot size of at least one of said screens to the macrodot size of another of said screens is a small whole number, and D. for each screen: (1) forming the macrodot by stepping through the masterdot an incremental distance in a first direction equal to the ratio m/n and an incremental distance in the second direction equal to (m/n) tan A, where m is the masterdot size, n is the macrodot size, and A is the selected screen angle, and (2) tiling said macrodots to form a screen of desired area.

Claim 2

A method of forming a plurality of printing screens, each having a selected frequency and angle, from a single masterdot of size m elements by m elements, the elements of said masterdot specifying a weight to be accorded a printing signal in the position corresponding to the element, comprising the steps of: A. selecting a macrodot size for a first of said screens as the ratio of the screening resolution and the line frequency to be used, B. selecting a macrodot size for a second of said screens as the product of the selected macrodot size for said first screen and an angle factor selected from the group comprising small whole numbers and small integer fractions, C. changing, as necessary, the macrodot size for one of said screens to the nearest integer having the property such that the ratio of the macrodot size of at least one of said screens to the macrodot size of another of said screens is a small whole number, and D. for each screen: (1) forming the macrodot by stepping through the masterdot an incremental distance in a first direction equal to the ratio m/n and an incremental distance in the second direction equal to (m/n) tan A, where m is the masterdot size, n is the macrodot size, and A is the selected screen angle, and (2) tiling said macrodots to form a screen of desired area.