For the typical combination of 170 lpi at 2400 dpi, this means 200 shades, for lower device resolutions or higher screen frequencies this could be even less. However, to achieve a smooth gradient, at least 1000 shades are needed.

A simple solution to this problem is to use supercells of 2 × 2 halftone dots, achieving 4 times more shades. For example, let's suppose that there is no intermediate dot size between 10% and 11%: having one dot of 10% and three dots of 11% in halftone cell (see the red square), an intermediary shade of 10.25% can be achieved.

Similar solutions are used by many RIPs. However, there are two major problems with it:

· using a small supercell (as the 2 × 2 cell above) will produce only 4 times more grays, which may not be enough for a smooth vignette (800 shades in the example above);
· using a larger supercell, ordered patterns will become visible, offending the human eye.

StudioRIP overcomes these problems using stochastic technology: the dots of different sizes are stochastically dispersed in the supercell, giving a much smoother output (see the stochastic pattern on second picture).