Halftoning
Halftoning
 Newspaper photographs simulate a greyscale, despite the fact that they
have been printed using only black ink.
• A newspaper picture is, in fact, made up of a pattern of tiny black dots of
varying size.
• The human visual system has a tendency to average brightness over small
areas, so the black dots and their white background merge and are
perceived as an intermediate shade of grey.
Halftoning
 The process of generating a binary pattern of black and white dots from an
image is termed halftoning.
 In traditional newspaper and magazine production, this process is carried
out photographically by projection of a transparency through a 'halftone
screen' onto film.
 The screen is a glass plate with a grid etched into it.
 Different screens can be used to control the size and shape of the dots in
the halftoned image.
Halftoning
 A fine grid, with a 'screen frequency' of 200-300 lines per inch, gives the
image quality necessary for magazine production.
 A screen frequency of 85 lines per inch is deemed acceptable for
newspapers.
Halftoning
Halftoning – dot size
Halftoning – Moire Patterns
 Repeated use of same dot pattern
for particular shade results in
repeated pattern
 Perceived as a moire pattern
 Instead, randomize halftone pattern
Patterning
 A simple digital halftoning technique known as patterning involves
replacing each pixel by a pattern taken from a 'binary font'.
 We shows such a font, made up of ten 3 x 3 matrices of pixels.
 This font can be used to print an image consisting of ten grey levels.
Fig : A 3 x 3 binary font for printing a greyscale.
Patterning
 A pixel with a grey level of 0 is replaced by a matrix containing no white
pixels; a pixel with a grey level of 1 is replaced by a matrix containing a
single white pixel; and so on.
 Note that, since we are replacing each pixel by a 3 x 3 block of pixels, both
the width and the height of the image increase by a factor of 3.
 Figure 5. 2 shows an example of halftoning using the binary font depicted
in Figure 5. 1.
Fig: Halftoning with a binary font. (a) 8-bit image (b) halftoned image
Dithering
 Halftoning for color images
Specifying Color
 Color perception usually involves three quantities:
 Hue: Distinguishes between colors like red, green, blue, etc
 Saturation: How far the color is from a gray of equal intensity
 Lightness: The perceived intensity of a reflecting object
 Sometimes lightness is called brightness if the object is
emitting light instead of reflecting it.
 In order to use color precisely in computer graphics, we
need to be able to specify and measure colors.
Combining Colors
Additive (RGB)
Shining colored lights
on a white ball
Subtractive (CMYK)
Mixing paint colors and
illuminating with white light
How Do Artists Do It?
 Artists often specify color as tints, shades, and tones of saturated (pure)
pigments
• Tint: Gotten by adding white to a pure pigment, decreasing saturation
• Shade: Gotten by adding
black to a pure pigment,
decreasing lightness
• Tone: Gotten by adding
white and black to a pure
pigment
White
Pure Color
Black
Grays Tones
Dithering
 Dithering can be accomplished by thresholding the image against a dither
matrix.
 The first two dither matrices, rescaled for application to 8-bit images, are
Dithering
 The elements of a dither matrix are thresholds.
 The matrix is laid like a tile over the entire image and each pixel value is
compared with the corresponding threshold from the matrix.
 The pixel becomes white if its value exceeds the threshold or black
otherwise.
 This approach produces an output image with the same dimensions as the
input image, but with less detail visible.
Algorithm to halftone an image using a
dither matrix.
for all x & y do
if f(x,y) > m(x,y) then
g(x,y) = white
else
g(x,y) = black
end if
End for
Fig: Halftoning with dither matrices. (a) Input image. (b) Halftoned
image using D1. (c) Halftoned image using D2
thanks to all

Halftoning in Computer Graphics

  • 1.
  • 2.
    Halftoning  Newspaper photographssimulate a greyscale, despite the fact that they have been printed using only black ink. • A newspaper picture is, in fact, made up of a pattern of tiny black dots of varying size. • The human visual system has a tendency to average brightness over small areas, so the black dots and their white background merge and are perceived as an intermediate shade of grey.
  • 3.
    Halftoning  The processof generating a binary pattern of black and white dots from an image is termed halftoning.  In traditional newspaper and magazine production, this process is carried out photographically by projection of a transparency through a 'halftone screen' onto film.  The screen is a glass plate with a grid etched into it.  Different screens can be used to control the size and shape of the dots in the halftoned image.
  • 4.
    Halftoning  A finegrid, with a 'screen frequency' of 200-300 lines per inch, gives the image quality necessary for magazine production.  A screen frequency of 85 lines per inch is deemed acceptable for newspapers.
  • 5.
  • 6.
  • 7.
    Halftoning – MoirePatterns  Repeated use of same dot pattern for particular shade results in repeated pattern  Perceived as a moire pattern  Instead, randomize halftone pattern
  • 8.
    Patterning  A simpledigital halftoning technique known as patterning involves replacing each pixel by a pattern taken from a 'binary font'.  We shows such a font, made up of ten 3 x 3 matrices of pixels.  This font can be used to print an image consisting of ten grey levels.
  • 9.
    Fig : A3 x 3 binary font for printing a greyscale.
  • 10.
    Patterning  A pixelwith a grey level of 0 is replaced by a matrix containing no white pixels; a pixel with a grey level of 1 is replaced by a matrix containing a single white pixel; and so on.  Note that, since we are replacing each pixel by a 3 x 3 block of pixels, both the width and the height of the image increase by a factor of 3.  Figure 5. 2 shows an example of halftoning using the binary font depicted in Figure 5. 1.
  • 11.
    Fig: Halftoning witha binary font. (a) 8-bit image (b) halftoned image
  • 12.
  • 13.
    Specifying Color  Colorperception usually involves three quantities:  Hue: Distinguishes between colors like red, green, blue, etc  Saturation: How far the color is from a gray of equal intensity  Lightness: The perceived intensity of a reflecting object  Sometimes lightness is called brightness if the object is emitting light instead of reflecting it.  In order to use color precisely in computer graphics, we need to be able to specify and measure colors.
  • 14.
    Combining Colors Additive (RGB) Shiningcolored lights on a white ball Subtractive (CMYK) Mixing paint colors and illuminating with white light
  • 15.
    How Do ArtistsDo It?  Artists often specify color as tints, shades, and tones of saturated (pure) pigments • Tint: Gotten by adding white to a pure pigment, decreasing saturation • Shade: Gotten by adding black to a pure pigment, decreasing lightness • Tone: Gotten by adding white and black to a pure pigment White Pure Color Black Grays Tones
  • 16.
    Dithering  Dithering canbe accomplished by thresholding the image against a dither matrix.  The first two dither matrices, rescaled for application to 8-bit images, are
  • 19.
    Dithering  The elementsof a dither matrix are thresholds.  The matrix is laid like a tile over the entire image and each pixel value is compared with the corresponding threshold from the matrix.  The pixel becomes white if its value exceeds the threshold or black otherwise.  This approach produces an output image with the same dimensions as the input image, but with less detail visible.
  • 20.
    Algorithm to halftonean image using a dither matrix. for all x & y do if f(x,y) > m(x,y) then g(x,y) = white else g(x,y) = black end if End for
  • 21.
    Fig: Halftoning withdither matrices. (a) Input image. (b) Halftoned image using D1. (c) Halftoned image using D2
  • 22.