The Benefits of Concentric Screening for Offset Lithography

by Mark Samworth, Artwork Systems

A concentric dot is a regular AM dot divided into rings.

Mark describes differences between AM, stochastic and concentric screening. Well... concentric has the best of both worlds... Organic (2nd generation stochastic by Artwork systems) has better registration, low visibility, fine detail, press stability, color saturation, ink savings..... disagrees however that has better registration. Mark claims it is actually worse than AM screening. Main difference is the savings in ink, because of the rings that decrease the amount of ink film that builds up on the surface.
The benefits of stochastic screening is the smaller dot size. And concentric screening has a smaller size.
The benefit of AM screening is that uniform patterns appear smoother visually.
So... concentric screening combines both.

Plus, concentric screening has higher chroma and is adjustable on press.