Scott Fresener, director of T-BizNetwork International and developer of FastFilms and T-Seps has introduced a plug-in for Photoshop call the Halftone Converter that automatically converts color separations in Photoshop to halftones that are ready to print. According to Fresener, "this plug-in came out of the need to replace the missing "Screen" button that Adobe removed from Photoshop CS5." He goes on to state "since the beginning of time we have been able to select the correct halftone frequency, angle and dot shape in Photoshop before we sent the print job to a printer. For some unknown reason, Adobe decided to remove this button in CS5. Go figure."

While Fresener explains this is not a true software RIP which normally does the halftone conversion and controls the amount of ink you lay down from an inkjet printer and lets you print black ink from all the cartridges, he says "it is the next best thing to a rip and if you have a rip then the only difference is you are sending a pre-halftoned file."

Fresener also states "you can actually create a channel separation in Photoshop and split the channels and convert each new file to halftone without using his plug-in. But, when you do that you lose any Channel Header information such as the mesh count, print order, ink color, and more that you usually put in the channel header to print on films."  He says the important point is  "the Halftone Converter keeps this information so the new halftoned files have the important details for each color."

The Halftone Converter works in any version of Adobe Photoshop and on any operating system for Windows or Mac. It is simple to use, inexpensive, and works with any printer - inkjet or laser. The program converts Photoshop channel separations into individual pre-halftoned files with all the channel header details retained and it also works with one-color grayscale images. You run the program and then print. It gives you full control over the halftone frequency, halftone dot shape, halftone angle and the final image resolution.

For more information and to see a YouTube video on this product  go to www.T-BizNetwork.com. You can also contact T-Biz Network International in Scottsdale, Arizona by calling 888-801-1561 or 480-212-1078. You can also email Scott direct at [email protected].