Hello, Konijnsate’s here. I finally solved my payment problem so I can finally subscribe ClipStudio Paint as I used to, and finally able to make another tips for you, hope it is helpful!

 

ClipStudio Paint, or even before that, Mangastudio are been so helpful to my local comic communities where they can easily make Japanese-style comic without buying expensive imported tools like g-pen, screentone, etc.

 

But sometimes there is a single problem especially when they applied digital screentones on their works. Why digital screentone sometimes looks strange when it got printed?

Here for example my comic, using 60 LPI screentone, but doesn’t look smooth when it got printed. What happened?

 

But no worries, here I will try to help solving this problem.

Basic Information about Screentone

Before we start, I’m going to explain basic thing about tone on Clip Studio Paint. There are few ways to apply a tone digitally, but my way usually just using Layer Properties simply because it is easiest method for me than dragging material or using selection tools.

First I usually create black base in separate layer so I can easily control the opacity.

When you press the Tone Effect button on Layer Properties bar, the layer will be quickly converted into tone layer.

When the Tone Layer is activated, you will see Frequency bar, frequency is to customize the size of the dot based on line per inch (LPI). You can also customize the Angle though personally I don’t use it pretty often.

Moiré Pattern

The strange pattern like checkered, huge circular or squared pattern on screentone is called Moiré Pattern, it was result of an interference between two or more overlapped pattern. I used to explain it on here:

Like the example mentioned there, Moire Pattern potentially happened when you overlap two identical tones but inequal frequency

And or below 30 degrees difference.

But we barely overlap two tones on black and white comics, why Moire Pattern still happened?

It because when we print a digital file, the printer automatically converting your image into an halftone. That’s it always potentially create Moire Pattern when you print it. Is there any way to handle it?

I will help by testing, printing, and analyzing.

The of Printer

Everytime we printed a digital image, the gray part would get converted into halftone. The frequency of the halftone from the printer might varies, depend on the type of the printer.

Or for more about LPI on printer you can check the link below

So, one of method to avoid moire pattern is keeping the difference 20 LPI or more, like for example the printing result above.

 

If you aren’t sure about your printer, you can simply choose the LPI for your screentone the safest one.

Other possible Moire Pattern is mentioned on link below

Closing

That’s all. Hope it helps.