halftone

noun

1. Synonym of semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale.

   “That animals utter musical notes is familiar to every one, as we may daily hear in the singing of birds. It is a more remarkable fact that an ape, one of the Gibbons, produces an exact octave of musical sounds, ascending and descending the scale by half-tones; so that this monkey “alone of brute mammals may be said to sing.””

2. A picture made by using the process of half-toning.

   “Before leaving New York a handsome booklet had been prepared and printed. The brochure contained the names of the commissioners, their public records, halftone portraits and a carefully prepared statement of the objects of the expedition.”

3. An intermediate or middle tone in a painting, engraving, photograph, etc.; a middle tint, neither very dark nor very light.

   ““No, I cannot enjoy it,” Cecilia said to Mrs. Devereux; “I don't mind the grey light; cloud and water, and half-tones of colour, are homely English and pleasant, and that opal where the sun should be has a suggestiveness richer than sunlight.[…]””

verb

1. To reproduce a photograph or other continuous tone image by the use of dots of various sizes.