Affinity Halftone Plugin - DTF Halftones Solved?

Most Affinity users creating DTF artwork are stuck in manual workflows: semi-transparent pixels, soft glows, and gradients turn into ugly white haze on press, and there are no true DTF halftone plugins for Affinity to fix it.

The closest thing to that “missing plugin” right now is using Affinity as your design front-end and DTPrep Web as your halftone and knockout engine in the browser.

Why DTF Needs Halftones

DTF printers lay down a solid white underbase anywhere there is any pixel above 0% opacity, including “barely visible” pixels in shadows, glows, and fades.

That means semi-transparent edges, drop shadows, and airbrushed fades all trigger white ink and adhesive, which shows up as a milky halo or square around the design.

Instead of real transparency, you get cloudy edges and random white junk on dark shirts, especially around gradients and soft brushes.

Halftones fix this by converting soft transparency into a pattern of fully opaque dots large enough to print cleanly.

Each dot gets proper white underbase and adhesive, so your “fade” is now a controlled dot pattern that visually reads as a smooth gradient but actually prints as solid, reliable ink.

Affinity’s Limits for DTF Halftoning

Affinity Photo and Designer are powerful raster/vector tools for DTF layout and editing, but they are not built with a dedicated DTF halftone plugin.

Affinity has a basic halftone live filter, but it is generic and not optimized for DTF underbase or haze prevention, so you still end up with manual steps for threshold, levels, and bitmap conversion.

Some recorded “Actions” exist and are marketed as plugins, but can be troublesome to install, run consistently across versions, or troubleshoot when they glitch on complex layers.

On top of that, most Affinity workflows involve multiple non-destructive layers and trial-and-error adjustments, which exaggerate fuzzy edges if you don’t export perfectly.

Without a one-click DTF plugin, you’re feeding your RIP or DTF supplier artwork that requires extra cleanup.

Best Affinity Setup for DTPrep

The goal is simple: let Affinity handle the design and raster work and let DTPrep handle the halftone and knockout processing.

For that to look clean, you want a big, sharp PNG from Affinity with transparency intact and no extra effects baked in.

Recommended setup:

• Start with a large canvas
  Set up your document at high resolution, like 5000 × 5000 px or larger (Affinity supports much bigger than Canva).
  Design your graphic to fill the canvas for ~300 PPI at your target print size.

• Design with DTF in mind
  Use crisp shapes, type, and vectors; avoid ultra-soft blurs or glows that will need heavy halftone conversion later.
  Rasterize effects non-destructively but keep the final composite clean for export.

• Export correctly from Affinity
  Go to File → Export → PNG.
  Enable Transparent background and set pixel dimensions to max out for your design (e.g., 4000–6000+ px long side).
  Use Bilinear resampling if needed, and skip flattening unless required—preserve transparency for DTPrep to process.

Once you have that high-res transparent PNG, you are ready for the “missing Affinity halftone plugin” step—DTPrep Web.

DTPrep Web: The “Plugin” Affinity Is Missing

DTPrep’s web version brings professional DTF halftone prep to Affinity users without needing Photoshop or finicky actions.

It was built specifically to eliminate semi-transparent pixels, prevent white haze, and output halftones tuned for DTF printing.

Typical workflow from Affinity to DTPrep Web:

• Upload your PNG
  Head to DTPrep.com and upload the transparent PNG from Affinity.
  Affinity’s high-res exports give DTPrep tons of detail for smooth, precise dot patterns.

• Apply halftone in a few clicks
  Select a DTF-optimized halftone that turns semi-transparent areas into dots sized for powder adhesion and transfer.
  Tweak dot size, density, and angle live—no redoing layers or filters like in Affinity manuals.

• Knock out colors and underbase issues
  Use built-in color knockout to clear backgrounds or shirt colors, cutting ink waste and white rectangles.
  It’s DTF/DTG-specific, so no hunting for hidden low-opacity pixels.

• Download and print
  Export the halftoned file as print-ready PNG for your DTF workflow.
  Result: haze-free fades, pro hand feel, and way less ink than raw Affinity exports.

In practice, it feels like a real Affinity halftone plugin: design in Affinity, jump to DTPrep Web for processing, then print.

Why This Combo Beats Affinity Actions

No native DTF halftone plugin exists for Affinity, and the available “actions” or macros often glitch, require exact layer setups, or fail on updates.

Affinity’s live filters work for general halftones but ignore DTF realities like underbase haze from transparents.

Pairing Affinity with DTPrep Web skips the hassle for a reliable, browser-based workflow that delivers pro DTF results without changing your editor.