Salt Lake City, UT—Wasatch Precision Rosette Screens (WPRS) have been fundamental to helping SoftRIP users produce high-end separations on inkjet printers. Their freedom from rosette failures and tonal quantization problems on inkjets remains unmatched, while SoftRIP's support for hybridization with FM plates has been a powerful tool for control of moiré. Wasatch Computer Technology is now pleased to announce an entirely new hybrid screening option, available only in Wasatch SoftRIP SP, that provides users with state-of-the-art halftoning.

Wasatch's new Precision Rosette Hybrid Screens transition from AM to FM methods at a minimum dot size. At densities above or below these thresholds, dots are held to that minimum size, and density is reproduced by removing dots in an FM or "stochastic" pattern.

This technique can be used to eliminate the "highlight break" that occurs in screen and flexo printing due to physical issues with small dots. It is widely used to address similar issues in offset printing. It can also be used to eliminate "plugged holes" in the shadow areas of inkjet separations. To address both types of problems independently, Wasatch SoftRIP allows users to set thresholds for both highlights and shadows.

These new Precision Rosette Hybrid Screens are very valuable for the flexo, screen, and offset markets, where the need for high-lpi film output is extremely important. This Hybrid method can also be combined with the Rosette/Stochastic Hybrid method to address both minimum dot sizes and 15 degree moiré simultaneously.