White transparency / faded dots in colour halftone

[davidc90305479]

Hello there! I have run into an issue where by when I change the opacity of my white gradient in my halftone I loose the sharpness of my dots as they too go translucent. Is there anyway I can just take out the white of my image and leave the black?

[Ton Frederiks]

Try a gradient to 100 % white and set the opacity item at the bottom of the Appearance panel to Multiply.

[Ton Frederiks]

[davidc90305479]

Thank you for your reply.
Yeah, I have tried that however the white is not multiplying with the transparent layer underneath. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Why do you need it transparent? 

If you put it on top of another object with multiply as blending mode, it will act as transparent.

If you export it as an image, that will give a problem.

[davidc90305479]

I need it transparent as I am looking to use my design for t-shirts and want the shirt colours to come through. I understand that multiply will act as translucent to background colours however will it register as translucent in print?

[Ton Frederiks]

If you print, white is paper color and is ignored (unless you print with white ink).

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

There are plugins that let you create vector screens.

You could also try to set your Effect > Document Raster Effects settings to 600 ppi or higher, apply the Color Halftone effect and Object > Expand Appearance

Use Auto Trace with the Ignore White option to create the vector screens.

[davidc90305479]

Yay! Thank you so much for your help. I will look into those plug-in for later projects to make my life easier. You have been a great help, thank you again. 🙂

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear that helped. But don't be afraid of white when printing, try a test print on colored paper.