Click Here to request a MicroTone® Screening brochure.
In the early 1990’s, stochastic screening appeared on the horizon as the next “big thing.” Printers scrambled to be the first to add this unique update to their arsenals. Stochastic was heralded as the first new screening option since the advent of metal plates. Stochastic dots are all of a uniform size. From highlight to shadow they merely cluster closer together, increasing in frequency. This fine screen promised greater detail, less color variation on press and no rosette pattern. Hennegan and other quality printers began to experiment and, to a limited extent,
produce jobs using the stochastic technology. Then, it sank from the horizon as quickly as it had arrived.
Fast forward to the new millennium. Hennegan and many other printers are now CTP, or computer-to-plate. Prepress is virtually a film-less operation now. Because of this, fine dots don’t disappear in the plate making process: the entire digital file is scanned accurately onto the plate. Fine line screening has reemerged as a catalyst for new, quality possibilities.
MicroTone®, Hennegan’s version of super-fine screening, was not born merely because of the advent of computer-to-plate technology. Extensive testing on a wide variety of coated and uncoated papers using different inks and a multitude of carefully plotted compensation curves has enabled Hennegan to implement a razor sharp focus on MicroTone®. It is not only elaborate testing, but also a series of process controls implemented between our Prepress Department and our Sheetfed and Web Departments that allows Hennegan to produce MicroTone® with such consistent and exciting results.
Click Here to request a MicroTone® Screening brochure.
