If you use half-tones, have them made very coarse screen--nothing
finer than 60 line. Stop out whites and eliminate backgrounds. The
high-light half-tone is a modern development with many virtues. If a
portrait is used, take out all background.
There is a way of retouching photographs that will minimize the danger
of poor printing. The artist strengthens weak contrasts, not with a
brush and paint, but with a pen and waterproof black ink. He also uses
areas of pure white. Successful reproduction is dependent upon
_sharp_, clear, vigorous _contrasts_.
Stippling is one of the best substitutes for the half-tone. This
simply means dotting-in a subject. It is a time-consuming, laborious
process, but it means line plates and the elimination of middle
tones--which are disastrous.
There was a time when certain clever inventions of the paper
manufacturer could be employed for half-tone effects in line. For
example, a Ross Board is manufactured with an assortment of patterned
surfaces. When brush or crayon or pencil is drawn over them, they give
effects that may not be duplicated in straight pen and ink on plain
white drawing board. Some of these papers have a chalk surface. Some
have imitation half-tone patterns, straight-line designs, etc. It is
possible to scratch away certain portions with a sharp knife. _Do not
use them_ as matters now stand in newspaper printing. They will not
"stand reduction" and only very coarse tints reproduce satisfactorily.
_Special Caution_--Do not allow artists to make original drawings for
newspaper use much larger than twice the size. Here is one of the
greatest evils of the day. The artist seems possessed to make his
original on a full sheet of paper, when he knows that the plate is for
two or three newspaper columns. What happens? An illustration which
makes a handsome showing in the original will inevitably fill-in when
reduced to "actual size." Figure it out yourself--look at it through a
reducing glass. Lines that seem wide apart almost touch in the
congestion that follows great reduction. The really wise and shrewd
artist makes his newspaper drawing _actual_ size.
Not more than a dozen Ben Day patterns can be used safely--now--in
newspapers. Do you know the meaning of "Ben Day?" It is a mechanical
tint, printed mechanically either on the plate, by the engraver, or on
the original drawing, from an inked gelatine surface and rubbed on
with a stilus. Magazine reproduction accepts it in all its forms.
Newspaper stock muddies it up when it is too fine. In any event, when
selecting a pattern, see that it is an open one and have it put on the
engraving--not the design. If on the design it means a reduction. If
on the plate it means no reduction, but precisely as shown in the Ben
Day book of patterns.
Avoid complex line treatments and techniques, such as cross-hatching
and the laying in of many very fine 290 pen lines close together. They
look well in the original--they seldom print well on newspaper stock.
They reduce abominably.
Any newspaper illustration should have plenty of white margin to
"relieve it." When a drawing is cramped, packed in, suffocated by side
rules, borders and text, it suffers.
Clear outline drawings, with an occasional dash of black, prove most
efficient for newspaper reproduction. They _can't_ fill in, they
_can't_ smudge, they _can't_ become contaminated by clots of printing
ink or defects in the newspaper stock. Not even fast press work can
damage their printability. But remember, not all outline drawings are
alike--great originality of technique can be secured.