Halftone Pattern (Vector)

[iamtheblues]

I keep on putting off using Illustrator on a regular basis because it's perceived by many as being clunky and unintuitive. Whilst this is undeniably true to a certain extent, there are things that Illy can do that other vector softwares cannot. So my New Year's resolution is to give Illy a fair crack of the whip to see if I can overcome my aversion to it and also to use the challenge of its complex nature to help ward off Alzheimer's!
So, I've attached an attempt at a halftone pattern, which I made using a gradient transparency on a black fill, which I then pixellated using the Halftone Colour option. After expanding the result, I did a live trace and expanded that to a vector pattern. This was then duplicated and given a contrasting colour. A bit of work with a clipping mask to tidy everything up and this is the result I achieved.
Bob.

[Big Frank]

Yes, creating vector halftones strikes me as being a pretty handy feature. I've done halftones in Xara before, but only by using pre-drawn halftone patterns and clipview. I guess it's not nearly as neat, but it got the job done.

Yes, I'd definitely like to see a tool like that, although, once again, I can't see it happening since I don't perceive Xara to be aimed at such print market. For Xara it would very much be a nice design feature and, as such, way down on the priority list. But it would nevertheless be nice to have.

Having said that, I've been a user of the product in its various guises for just about 12 years, and I'm very used to looking for workarounds using the existing tools. I'm not a great plug-in phreak, as you know

[iamtheblues]

Agreed, Frank. I use the blend tool in XDP to help create vector halftone patterns, but it's a bit clunky - not that the Illustrator method is particularly straightforward, either.
Bob.

[Albacore]

Bob it's great to see you getting stuck in to Illy. Bob if that was a radial Gradient I would think that was a way of doing it but since that is just linear why not use the Blend Tool and everything is still vector. I bet you that is how you would do it in Xara! That is the way I do it and I have gone to the other extreme and made a very large, well I would call it a screen, all you have to do is to place it on the object with use a clipping mask and it is done. I have many patterns including halftone which I save as symbols and when I want to use them I just bring them in under "Other Libraries" so they don't load every time. I will look at the size of the file and see if it will upload.
Let's hope that this area of this forum will see more action as the programme does warrant more attention. (You beat me to it with the blend)