• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Applying a halftone gradient to text

Community Beginner ,
Jan 09, 2019 Jan 09, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I've been trying to discover a way to apply the following halftone effect to text in Illustrator 2019:

I've got Photoshop, and I can accomplish this in Photoshop, then expand or live trace the resultant image in Illustrator for a scalable vector, but I'm certain that this functionality has got to baked into Illustrator somewhere, and I'm just missing it.

Embarrassingly for Adobe, the above image is from a simple tutorial for a free Windows vector editor called Inkscape. It's strange to think that I could download a free app in Windows via Parallels and pretty easily accomplish this, but I can't seem to get it done in the $250/yr Adobe software? Someone, please tell me I'm wrong.

Thanks for any help/guidance!

Matt

Views

10.3K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 2 Correct answers

Community Expert , Jan 10, 2019 Jan 10, 2019

You can do that with Effects and keep the text editable:

raster.png

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert , Nov 13, 2024 Nov 13, 2024

Screenshot 2024-11-13 at 21.38.15.png

@Muhammad Sattar  To keep the text live, you can try this:

Select the text with the Selection Tool (V).

Set the Fill color to None.

Add a new Red Fill color in the Appearance panel.

This will also add an empty Stroke item, drag that below the Characters item.

Expand the Red Fill item and set the Opacity blend mode to Lighten.

Add a new fill below the Red Fill and make it a 90 degrees grayscale gradient (easier to see if you temporarely turn off the Red fill).

Add a Rasterize Effect: Grayscale,

...

Votes

Translate

Translate
Adobe
Community Expert ,
Jan 09, 2019 Jan 09, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Illustrator doesn't have a similar feature. However, We can use some solution.

Here is a sample of halftone work you can reference.

スクリーンショット 2019-01-10 11.28.25.png

Script available below link.

Extend_Script_experimentals/halftoneScreenConverter.jsx at master · ten-A/Extend_Script_experimental...

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 10, 2019 Jan 10, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

You can do that with Effects and keep the text editable:

raster.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jan 10, 2019 Jan 10, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

That's it! Thank you, Ton!

I had experimented with this same combination of effects, but I think my order was different, and I certainly wasn't sure which variables to set and to what. I could never produce the effect. Not even close.

This was the solution, and concisely presented. Thank you!

Grace and peace,

Matt

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 10, 2019 Jan 10, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Good to hear that helped!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 16, 2021 Nov 16, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi, I'm also looking for this solution. I've tried the effects but I'm not sure why my dots do not get seperate like your example @Ton Frederiks. Could you step out what you extaclty do? Size type etc. 

Screenshot 2021-11-16 at 18.47.28.png

 Because I want to try to get this effect; 

Screenshot 2021-11-16 at 18.48.17.png

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 16, 2021 Nov 16, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Try removing the fill from the original text (Character line in Appearance panel shown above).

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 16, 2021 Nov 16, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Try to fill the text with a percentage of grey instead of black.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 16, 2021 Nov 16, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you both for the fast reply! 

 

I've tried a couple of options. But I think the Grey Value works the best. 

See results;

Screenshot 2021-11-16 at 20.27.30.png

 And maybe even the weight of the font fill help for the readability of the text. 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 16, 2021 Nov 16, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Good to hear that helped.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jan 12, 2024 Jan 12, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

hello @Ton Frederiks I have a question - how come tthe txt is editable when you rasterize it?

I would be grateful for your response 🙂

Mag

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 12, 2024 Jan 12, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Magdalena, because this Rasterize is applied as an Effect in the Appearance panel. Effects are only finally applied when you Expand the Appearance.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Nov 12, 2024 Nov 12, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

thanks for it. how can i change the color of halftone effect?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 12, 2024 Nov 12, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

@Muhammad Sattar 

For a Gradient Style

  1. Type your text out. Make two copies. 
  2. Select 1 text & outlines text (Type - Create Outlines) Keyboard shortcuts(Command Shift O (Mac) or Control Shift O (PC)
  3. Open the gradient tool. Apply a gradient. Swap the orange color into the gradient
  4. While the text is still selected, go to Effect - Pixelate - Color Halftone (you can play around with the size, angles and channels)
  5. I added a separate orange outline to the extra copied text as shown and a black outline to the other copied text
    creativeexplorer_0-1731481009861.png

     

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 13, 2024 Nov 13, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied


@Muhammad Sattar  schrieb:

thanks for it. how can i change the color of halftone effect?


 

You want halftone dots in just one color?

There are two methods.

One is to make a black and white halftone dot effect and apply it as an opacity mask on a colored rectangle and the other I have explained in your own thread, that you can find here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/how-can-i-apply-similar-halftone-effect-to-te....

Here's the process with the opacity mask:

https://youtu.be/DaF0jLREPp8

 

Appearance panel, Rasterize effect, Halftone effect, Transparency panel

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 13, 2024 Nov 13, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Screenshot 2024-11-13 at 21.38.15.png

@Muhammad Sattar  To keep the text live, you can try this:

Select the text with the Selection Tool (V).

Set the Fill color to None.

Add a new Red Fill color in the Appearance panel.

This will also add an empty Stroke item, drag that below the Characters item.

Expand the Red Fill item and set the Opacity blend mode to Lighten.

Add a new fill below the Red Fill and make it a 90 degrees grayscale gradient (easier to see if you temporarely turn off the Red fill).

Add a Rasterize Effect: Grayscale, 600 ppi, Transparent, anti-aliasing None, no clipping mask, no additional px around.

Add a Pixelate > Color Halftone Effect: Radius 28 px 45 degrees.

Add another Rasterize Effect, this time Bitmap 1200 ppi.

Add a Yellow fill below the Characters item.

Add a stroke below the Yellow fill.

In the Graphic Styles panel click the + to add a New Graphic Style, that makes is possible to add this to other text.

So far the text is live and can be changed.

Because the Lighten blend mode is an RGB effect, this graphic style will not work in a CMYK document.

To use this in a CMYK document, create it in RGB, choose Object > Flatten Transparency: High Resolution Preset.

This will be destructive, text is no longer live, but outlined.

Copy and paste the result in a CMYK document.

See attached PDF (open the PDF in Illustrator).

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Nov 14, 2024 Nov 14, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you Tom I really appreciate your help

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Nov 14, 2024 Nov 14, 2024

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

Good to hear that helped.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 10, 2019 Jan 10, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Astute Graphics Phantasm plug-in for Illustrator can generate a variety of halftone effects that are vector-based. It can also produce some interesting color effects too. The plug-in costs a little over $40 with the current dollars to pounds exchange rate.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines