Studies in the sensitivity of photographic materials

The sensitivity of photographic emulsions is not measured by the exposure necessary to produce an arbitrarily chosen density. It is measured by a definite value of DID…, which is given by the inflection point of the characteristic curve.For simple characteristic curves, the inertia point is quantitatively related to the inflection point.The most complete measurements of sensitivity are obtainable by a quantic analysis of the shape of the characteristic curve.     

Theory of the halftone process. III. Dot size and halftone density

The theoretical and experimental quantitative relationships between the dot diameter, dot area, and density of a halftone are given. Experimental results do not agree exactly with the theoretical relationships except for screen negatives and positives with sharp dots.For accurate rendering, highlight dots in a reproduction must increase extremely rapidly in size for small density increments in the highlights of an original. A “emi-dark-field” densitometer is described which eliminates the effect of dot fringe in measuring densities of screen positives. The relationship between density of screen positive and density of proof is briefly discussed.     

Theory of the halftone process. II. The diffraction theory-calculation of the light distribution

An approximate method of calculating the light distribution in the dots formed behind a halftone screen from the Fresnel diffraction theory is described, and in a typical case, the distribution is found to check closely with that determined experimentally, being very different from that calculated from geometrical optics.