Stippling is the creation of an image using small dots. Contrary to popular belief, it differs from pointillism and divisionism in that it is done in a single color and with uniform shapes, relying on the density of the dots to convey darkness and light. It was popularized as a means of print illustration because it can be easily replicated with only black ink, and is sometimes preferred to hatching (another popular form of two-dimensional shading using lines instead of dots) because it doesn’t inhibit the rendering of contours.