Pantograph Line Stroke vs. Screening

[z284pwr]

I work for a check printing company so I'm dealing with thin line pantographs a lot. I always find the final result disappoint because the detail of the pantograph is lost due to the loss of the solid line with a screened line with offset press printing. I'm curious if anyone has messed with going to a thinner line stroke as a with no screen for a solid line instead of a thicker stroke that is screened whether it be with Illustrator or any of the equivalent layout programs.
Since most of the designs aren't straight lines switching from a dot screen to a line screen doesn't help as much especially when the screen are in the 15-20% range. Thinner solid lines to emulate a similar screen value would also allow for microprint lines within the pantograph and not lose all the detail in the small text.

 

[gordo]

Are you able to use 10 micron FM screening for your pantographs?

You can see examples of how fine a line (about 1/4 point) screened 10 micron FM can render offset at 2400 dpi if you look at the graphics in or purchase the "SpaceBloom" book here: Spacebloom : catalog

The graphic which you can download from here: http://www.spacebloom.net/download/grid/ gives a rough idea of how fine the lines are that the screening can resolve.
best, gordo

 

[[email protected]]

The pantographs I have used are 2400 dpi bitmaps and should be rendered at 100% with no screening. The only way I could get them to render correctly was to us OPI image replacement and let the rip render the file without any processing. This worked with both Nexus and Prinergy rips.
Hope this helps.

Tim_B