2-bit AM screening, 150 LPI

A printing method used to print most monochrome manga. It consists of 150 lines of black/white dots per inch, and requires 600 DPI source data.

8-bit AM screening, 175 LPI

A printing method used by most artbooks and posters. It consists of 175 lines per inch using 4 channels (CYMK) at 256 tones each and different angles. It requires 350 DPI source data.

8-bit AM screening, 200~300 LPI

Similar to the previous method, but used by high quality photo artbooks and some doujinshi.

FM screening

A printing method used by some doujinshi. Quality varies between companies because it's a relatively newer technology. Overall, it matches 300 LPI AM quality, but due to the semi-random dotting that is part of the process, colors are a bit inconsistent.

Hybrid screening (XM)

A new printing method used by some doujinshi that combines AM and FM methods. There are many subtypes of hybrid screening, but in general, it has the same quality as 300~600 LPI AM prints and there is no color inconsistency.

AM screening, 65~133 LPI

A printing method used for newspapers, cheap magazines and fabric goods.

Extra reading

• AM/FM/XM - Some info can be found here and here (pdf).
• LPI vs. DPI.
• Quality in Print - Everything you ever wanted to know about the printing process.

Updated by Aurelia over 13 years ago