The Ben Day process is a

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

and

photoengraving Photoengraving is a process that uses a light-sensitive photoresist applied to the surface to be engraved to create a mask that protects some areas during a subsequent operation which etches, dissolves, or otherwise removes some or all of the ma ...

technique for producing areas of gray or (with

four-color printing The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

) various colors by using fine patterns of ink on the paper. It was developed in 1879 by illustrator and printer Benjamin Henry Day Jr. (son of 19th-century publisher Benjamin Henry Day). The process is commonly described in terms of Ben Day dots, but other shapes can be used, such as

parallel lines In geometry, parallel lines are coplanar infinite straight lines that do not intersect at any point. Parallel planes are planes in the same three-dimensional space that never meet. '' Parallel curves'' are curves that do not touch each oth ...

texture Texture may refer to: Science and technology * Image texture, the spatial arrangement of color or intensities in an image * Surface texture, the smoothness, roughness, or bumpiness of the surface of an object * Texture (roads), road surface c ...

s.Edmund F. Russ (Oct 1919
"The Ben Day Process"
''Western Advertising'', Vol. 1 No. 9, pp. 5-&c, Ramsey Oppenheim Co., San Francisco Depending on the effect, color or

optical illusion In visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide varie ...

needed, small colored dots are closely spaced, widely spaced, or overlapping.

Magenta Magenta () is a purple-red color. On color wheels of the RGB color model, RGB (additive) and subtractive color, CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red. It is one of the four colors of ink used in colo ...

dots, for example, are widely spaced to create pink, or an interleaved pattern of cyan and yellow dots might be used to produce a medium green. The technique has been widely used in color

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

s, especially in the mid 20th century, to inexpensively create

shading Shading refers to the depiction of depth perception in 3D models (within the field of 3D computer graphics) or illustrations (in visual art) by varying the level of darkness. Shading tries to approximate local behavior of light on the object's ...

and

secondary color A secondary color is a color made by color mixing, mixing two primary colors of a given color model in even proportions. Combining two secondary colors in the same manner produces a tertiary color. Secondary colors are special in traditional co ...

s. The process differs from the

halftone Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone, continuous-tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size or in spacing, thus generating a gradient-like effect.Campbell, Alastair. ''The Designer's Lexicon''. ...

dots, which can vary continuously in size to produce gradations of shading or color, and are commonly produced from photographs. Ben Day dots are of equal size and distribution across a specific area, and are commonly applied to line art or graphic designs. To apply the dots, the artist would cut the appropriate shapes from transparent overlay sheets, which were available in a wide variety of dot sizes and dot distribution, to provide a range of tones to use. When

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

ically reproduced as a line cut for

letterpress printing Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable t ...

, the areas of Ben Day overlay provided the effect of tonal shading to the printing plate. Ben Day dots have been used deliberately, usually to evoke their use in color comics. They were a hallmark of American artist

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

, who enlarged and exaggerated them in many of his paintings and sculptures to evoke the printing technique used in the comic book illustrations he commonly copied. The animated trilogy ''

Spider-Verse Spider-Verse is a comic book series issued by Marvel Comics since 2014. Its first major event/storyline started on November 5 in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' (2014) No. 9 along with an individual issue named ''Spider-Verse Team-Up''. This event ...

'' (2018–2024) uses a variety of visual styles, including illustrations with visible Ben Day dots.

References

{{Authority control Dot patterns Engraving Printing processes

See also

References