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While I was looking for a cute image to post in the chat room, I came across
this image

![an invisible person looking at a manga
page](https://i.stack.imgur.com/627wU.jpg)

I remember in _Season 2 Episode 8 - Chinatsu Unrivalled_ (I think), Toshinō
Kyōko gets everyone to help her with her doujin work by doing some shading.
From what I remember, they place the darker sheet on top of the outlined
doujin pages.

So what exactly is this sheet? What is it used for? Is it something doujin
artists use to supplement what a professional would use, or is it used by
professional mangakas as well?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-02-12T00:06:48.783
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2016-05-02T08:56:23.677
2015-02-12T10:39:06.507
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question
manga-production yuru-yuri
What is this sheet Toshinou Kyouko is using?


That's called [**screentone**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screentone). The
idea is that it's borderline impossible to get a uniform gray that will be
reproduced well by a printer if you shade the gray in by hand. Keep in mind
that "gray" on a standard printer is actually just "small black dots with some
white space" - which is not what a human with a pencil or an ink brush will
produce.

Screentones, in their most basic form, are preprinted sheets of various shades
of gray that can be cut and pasted onto a black-and-white drawing to impart
some "color". As you can see, they are printer-friendly, since they consist of
black dots on a white backdrop. Also, aside from the fact that they print
better, it's just easier to cut-and-paste screentones than to draw stuff in by
hand.

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/oKzTSt.jpg)](http://webshop.sekaido.co.jp/product/details.php?pid=20054&cat=1102010101)

More elaborate screentones exist for other kinds of non-uniform textures, such
as:

  * plaid (screentones are why the "[Unmoving Plaid](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnmovingPlaid)" thing happens)  
[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yoKr7t.jpg)](http://webshop.sekaido.co.jp/product/details.php?pid=20746&cat=11020203)

  * gradients  
[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6NSpst.jpg)](http://webshop.sekaido.co.jp/product/details.php?pid=35130&cat=1102010303)

  * floral patterns  
[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bvhrZt.jpg)](http://webshop.sekaido.co.jp/product/details.php?pid=21317&cat=11020507)

  * kablooies (this is a technical term)  
[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sly3At.jpg)](http://webshop.sekaido.co.jp/product/details.php?pid=20996&cat=11020306)

I would assume that professional manga artists and amateurs both use
screentones for any serious work they do, though I imagine pros probably have
access to (and make use of) a wider variety of screentones, being
professionals and all.


CC BY-SA 3.0
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answer