Definitions for "Soft dot"
Keywords:  halation, halo, fringe, halftone, dot
A halftone dot that does not have uniform density over its entire surface and may also have a soft fringe, commonly produced by digital image-setters. Contact exposure to another piece of film will burn away the indistinct area and produce a hard dot. This is an important area for calibration and quality-control checks since small variances in dot size can create dramatic changes in color reproduction.
A halftone dot which prints with an excessive graduated halo instead of a sharp edge.
An excessively large halo around a dot in a photograph that causes a fringe that diminishes the dot intensity.