VanDerLee - Home / Plug-ins / Halftone / Features - Overview of the features and technical specifications of the Halftone plug-in.

Technical overview

Topic	Details
Quality	All internals are atleast 16-bit quality, typically better. True, mathematically correct anti-aliassing for built-in shapes. Specialized anti-aliassing algorithms for custom shapes. Adapts to each shape's unique properties. Anti-alias can be disabled for printing press output.
User interface	Resizable to full screen. Size remembered between sessions. All controls easily accessible from a single window. Partially tabbed interface so you only see the options you use.
Shapes	Includes three fully configurable built-in shapes. Correct mathematical models for perfect rendering quality. Supports all non-RLE Windows™ Bitmap (.BMP) files. Automatically calculates base size based on each individual shape. Smooth partial transparency possible in custom shapes.
Preview	Real-time updated whilst changing settings. Can be disabled for performance. Scales to image size. Designs created for a small image scale to large images. Accurate and reliable at any zoom level.
Image modes	Supports both 8-bit and 16-bit images. Supports RGB, grayscale and duotone modes for all image depths. Supports any image resolution (dependant on memory requirements).
Help	Tooltips when mouse over controls for quick information on the control. Illustrated help system using Windows-standard HTML Help format, accessible from within the plug-in.
Pre-processing	Change generic image properties inside Halftone™ for improved workflow. Familiar brightness/contrast controls. Smoothing to eliminate "popping". Scales to image dimensions to enable conceptualization. Invert image to print bright dots instead of dark dots.
Placement	Fine-grained control over all placement options. Rotation of entire grid and individual shapes. Position shifting along horizontal and vertical axes. Radial waves along circles. Orthogonal waves along horizontal and vertical axes. Spiral distortion. Randomized position and rotation for individual shapes.
Scaling	Fine-grained control over all scale options. Set scale of grid based on image DPI (Dots Per Inch) or user-defined. Scale according to LPI (Lines Per Inch) setting for predictable printing results. Set minimum and maximum dot sizes. Use negative values to achieve size "cropping".
Color	User-configurable color for both foreground and background possible. Quick access to graphics application's current foreground and background colors. Swap colors or quickly set default black/white colors using buttons. Set background transparent (for non-background layers only) or source image for see-through effects and complex post-processing effects. Opacity of foreground color configurable.

System requirements

Halftone is designed to work on any Windows computer.

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 95 upto Windows Vista.
Processor: Any Intel Pentium, AMD Athlon or compatible.
Memory: 64MB or more. Recommended atleast 1GB.
Harddisk: 12MB of free disk space or more. Additional disk space required if installed for multiple graphics applications.
Screen color-depth: 24 bit or better.
Screen resolution: 800 × 600 or greater. Recommended alteast 1024 × 768.

Halftone works with all major graphics applications for Windows.

Adobe™ Photoshop™, Photoshop Elements, ImageReady, Illustrator, PhotoDeLuxe and After Effects™.
Corel™ Paint Shop Pro™ (formerly by JASC™), Painter™ (formerly by MetaCreations), PhotoPaint and Bryce.
Macromedia Freehand and Fireworks™
ACD Systems Canvas™ (formerly by Deneba™) and Photo Editor
ULead PhotoImpact™ and GIF Animator
Serif PhotoPlus
Xara
Satori PhotoXL
Right Hemisphere Deep Paint
Equilibrium DeBabelizer Pro
...and many others. Click here for a full list of compatible graphics applications.