Half tone, or Half"-tone` , n.
1. (Fine Arts)
(a)
An intermediate or middle tone in a painting, engraving, photograph, etc.; a middle tint, neither very dark nor very light.
(b)
A half-tone photo- engraving.
2. (Music)
A half step.
© Webster 1913
Half"-tone` (?), a.
Having, consisting of, or pertaining to, half tones; specif. (Photo- engraving),
pertaining to or designating plates, processes, or the pictures made by them, in which gradation of tone in the photograph is reproduced by a graduated system of dotted and checkered spots, usually nearly invisible to the unaided eye, produced by the interposition between the camera and the object of a screen. The name alludes to the fact that this process was the first that was practically successful in reproducing the half tones of the photograph.
© Webster 1913