Benday Dots

Short for Benjamin Day, the Benday Dots printing process combines two (or more) different small, colored dots to create a third color. Depending on the effect, color and optical illusion needed, dots may be proximal or overlapping. 1950s and 1960s pulp comic books used Benday dots in primary colors to inexpensively create shading and the secondary colors of green, purple, orange and flesh tones. Considered his trademark, American artist Roy Lichtenstein enlarged and exaggerated Benday dots in many of his paintings and sculptures.