The journey of Printing Photographs in newspapers wasn’t always as straightforward as it is today. Initially, newspapers relied on a painstaking method: wood engravings meticulously copied by hand from standard photographs. It wasn’t until the 1890s that the process of printing photographs began to mirror modern techniques, primarily through the ingenious method of halftoning. This innovative approach allowed for the reproduction of varying tones by printing patterns of tiny dots, differing in size and spacing to create the illusion of continuous tones in printed images. By the 1920s, while still arguably not matching the artistic quality of hand-engraving, halftone printing had become significantly more sophisticated. Hand-engraving, although superior in image quality, was time-consuming, demanding considerable artistic skill, and consequently, expensive. For high-quality publications like books, photogravure offered a more refined ink printing method, but it remained too costly for mass-market applications such as newspapers, advertising flyers, or affordable magazines.
The Halftone Revolution: How Dots Made Newspaper Photos Possible
The advent of halftones marked a turning point in newspaper photograph printing. The process began with re-photographing an original printed photograph through a specialized glass screen etched with a grid of tiny apertures. This was projected onto a film or plate. Crucially, this film was then developed under high contrast conditions. This development process resulted in the creation of dots on the film, the size of which directly corresponded to the intensity of light in the original photograph. In brighter areas of the photo, larger dots would form, while darker areas resulted in smaller dots.
This halftone film was then used to create a contact print on a metal sheet coated with a light-sensitive material. Upon exposure, the material hardened wherever light passed through the clear areas of the halftone film (around the dots). The unhardened material was then washed away, leaving a dot pattern of hardened material on the metal. An acid etch was then employed to dissolve the exposed metal in the areas not protected by the hardened dots. This etching process created a printing plate with a surface of tiny raised dots. This plate would then be mounted onto a wood block and integrated into the printing press alongside the text for printing.
Close-up of halftone printing dots from a vintage postcard
If you examine a printed photograph closely, especially those from older newspapers or postcards, you can often see these halftone dots. Using a magnifying glass or zooming in on a digital image can reveal the dot pattern that makes up the image’s tones. For instance, consider a postcard from around 1910. These often utilized a simpler single-screen halftone technique where the dots are quite apparent even to the naked eye.
Advancements in Halftone Printing Techniques
While the early halftone process relied on a single screen, more advanced methods emerged, particularly in the 1930s and beyond. These sophisticated techniques involved using multiple screens with varying sizes and angles to capture a wider range of tones and finer details. However, single-screen halftoning was a significant step forward and remained prevalent for many years.
By the 1970s, photo offset printing began to supersede letterpress printing, and with it, the way halftones were produced evolved. In photo offset, the entire page, including text and images, is photographically transferred to a printing plate. The introduction of CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) printing further revolutionized color printing, but the fundamental principle of halftoning – using dots to represent tones – persisted.
Even in today’s digital printing landscape, the legacy of halftoning endures. While physical screens are largely replaced by digital algorithms, the core concept of breaking down continuous tones into dot patterns remains central to how printers reproduce images.
Delving Deeper into the World of Print
For those fascinated by the evolution of photography as a tangible art form, “The Printed Picture” by Richard Benson is an invaluable resource. This book comprehensively explores various print processes from the Renaissance to the present day, offering deeper insights into techniques like halftoning and photogravure.
To further your exploration into newspaper printing history, keywords such as “halftones,” “letterpress,” and “offset printing” are excellent starting points for research. Additionally, encyclopedic resources like Encyclopedia Britannica offer articles on “photoengraving” that provide detailed explanations of these historical printing processes.
In conclusion, the development of halftone printing was crucial in making photograph printing in newspapers a practical reality. This ingenious method, using patterns of dots to simulate tonal range, not only revolutionized newspaper publishing but also laid the groundwork for many of the digital printing techniques we use today.
