Color gradient halftone

[Kendall5C62]

Does anybody know how to do a color gradient halftone in Illustrator? I can do a B/W halftone and I know how to color it with a solid color, but I want to color it with a gradient with 2 or 3 colors. Is that possible or am I just wasting my time?

[ceyhun_akgun]

You can still create the TINT value of a color marked globally in the swatches panel. You can add them to the Gradient panel. I guess you want to do that.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

If this is the effect you are after, I would create the halftone first, group the result and apply the gradient to the group with a lighten mode. The shape can be modified afterwards, all the effects are live. You can also apply it to text.

[Kendall5C62]

This really helped thank you! There's still this transparent line around the top and left edge though. Any way I can fix that? It stays in the same spot when I scale and move the halftone. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear that helped! 

When I created the example, I saw a little line, I got rid of it by giving the rectangle effect a -1 px width. Maybe experimenting with the extra width option helps.

[Kendall5C62]

So do I convert it to a shape first? I'm still relatively new to Illustrator.

[Ton Frederiks]

I added the fill to the group and used the Effect > Convert to Shape > Rectangle for the gradient fill.

[Ton Frederiks]

Have a look at this file:

https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/f51becca-c607-4dbd-69a9-acfbbd7896a2

[Ton Frederiks]

The method I gave only works with RGB documents.

A simpler method would be to work with an Opacity mask, that works in both RGB and CMYK.

After creating the halftone, put a rectangle filled with a gradient behind it and click Make Mask in the Transparency panel. Check both Clip and Invert mask.