Systems and methods of printing to a tangible medium provide for reducing ink penetration via the controlled selection of halftone patterns. One method includes steps of printing to the tangible medium (e.g., via a multicolor ink supply such as CMYK) using a plurality of initial halftone patterns, measuring ink absorption of the tangible medium in response to printing to the tangible medium, and determining a subset of the plurality of initial halftone patterns based on the absorption measurement. The method also includes printing a print job to the tangible medium based on the subset of the plurality of initial halftone patterns. For example, a print controller may be reprogrammed with the subset of the plurality of initial halftone patterns to print a print job to reduce the amount of ink applied to the tangible medium.