Halftone Output Sharpener 'Crunchy'

[Mark Turner]

Sharpened images at final size using 150 lpi 300 dpi Halftone Output Sharpener look pretty 'crunchy' on screen with the default opacity. Is this normal on-screen appearance or should I be reducing the opacity to tone down the sharpening? Image size is 467x700 pixels if that makes any difference.

I'm starting to process 1200 images for a book and don't want to do them over. I won't see a true proof until much later. I make inkjet guide prints but that's a different output process and sharpening won't look the same.

-- Mark Turner

[Bruce Fraser]

It's normal and desirable for the images to look crunchy on screen. Try looking at them at 25% view (at 300ppi/15lpi it's going to take 4 pixels to make 1 halftone dot).

If you're really scared, archive the RGBs with the output sharpener layers intact. Then if push comes to shove once you HAVE seen proofs, you can run a batch action overnight on all 1200 images to reduce the layer opacity (and flatten and convert to CMYK, etc.).

But I'd fully expect the halftone output sharpeners to look really nasty at 100% view. Bear in mind that the pixels you're seeing will each be 1/300th of an inch in size on final repro and it'll take four of 'em to make a dot.