Printable Tonal Range

Printable tonal range is the working window between the smallest dot a screen holds and the largest one that has not filled in. Offset on coated paper runs comfortably from 2% to 98%. On a cotton tee at 55 lpi, honest numbers sit closer to 10% and 85%, about 75 usable points instead of 96, and that assumes clean exposure, 230 or 305 mesh, and a curve built for the specific ink and garment. Every tone in a photograph, from a blown sky to the inside of a shadow, gets squeezed into that band before it reaches film.

Compression is why a photo on a shirt never has the snap of the same photo on a poster, and saying so before the sample stage prevents an argument after it. A landscape with a bright sky and deep pines has maybe fifteen points of separation left at each end once the printable tonal range is applied. The fix is never more ink. It is deciding which end of the picture carries the story, then spending the window there.

Pros compress on purpose rather than letting the press do it violently. Set output levels near 25 and 220 in Photoshop, then add an S-curve inside that band to rebuild local contrast so midtone detail stays crisp. Dropping lpi buys range back: 45 lpi on 305 mesh holds a wider printable tonal range than 65 lpi on 156 mesh. The cost is visible dot texture from three feet away.

A common belief is that raising lpi yields more tones. On textile it does the opposite, because finer dots mean highlights that blow off and shadows that plug sooner. Resolution and tonal range pull against each other on fabric.