Printing plates can only hold discrete dots of ink, so to fill an area with 50% grey, for example, the plate must be stippled with dots filling half the area. Traditionally, ‘continuous tone’ image such as photos are broken up by optical screening into halftone dots that lie on a fixed grid, the size of each dot changing in proportion on the required tint. The fineness or ‘frequency’ of the screen is measured in lpi (lines per inch); newspapers may use 55 or 65lpi, to suit coarse paper, whereas a glossy magazine might use 133lpi.
To avoid moiré (see below), all the screens must be set at non-conflicting angles. With more than four plates, there aren’t enough angles to go around. So, rather than halftoning, ‘stochastic’ screening must be used. Tiny dots, all the same size, are scattered pseudo-randomly across an area.