In the course of reproduction, the halftone dots tend to increase in size. This tendency is called dot gain. In offset printing , there may be a slight increase in dot size when the ink is transferred from the plate to the blanket. The greatest dot gain, however, occurs when the ink is applied to the paper. Paper quality , as mentioned above, has a lot to do with determining the screen frequency.
Dot gain is expressed as a percentage that varies according to the factors given above.
However dots in the shadows and highlights aren't as much affected. Printers traditionally compensate for dot gain by adjusting the exposure time when photographing the original so that a smaller dot is created. All rights reserved. Users may make a single copy of portions of database for personal use provided that this notice is included on such copy. See Terms of Use for additional terms for use of database.