You should use judgement when implementing Maxtone—it is not a universal solution. It should be used when the situation warrants, and avoided when the situation doesn't. Maxtone is designed to improve the appearance of images and gradients that fade in the extreme highlights. It could be used for images like clouds or image drop shadows that will transition to 0% in some or all colors.
Content suitable for use with Maxtone
Remember that Maxtone is a stochastic or discontinuous screening technique. If a flat tint area with Maxtone is compared to a flat tint area with full AM, most people would say that Maxtone area looks grainy. This is because full AM appears smoother (there are no discontinuities in the rows).
Flat tint area of Maxtone compared to flat tint area of AM
For this reason, use of Maxtone to reproduce flat tint areas is not recommended. Instead, use techniques to ensure that Maxtone does not appear in these flat tint areas. One technique is to adjust any color recipes that have color formulas below the minimum dot to be above the minimum dot. For example, if the minimum dot size that is used to calculate Maxtone is 6%, adjust all color recipes to ensure that they have 6% or more of any component color in each channel.
In suitable print situations, Maxtone can greatly improve highlight reproduction and quality, but it must be stressed that when reproducing flat tint areas, Maxtone is designed to give smooth gradient transitions to 0%.