Creating Duotones


For some reason, creating a duotone (a photo that uses just two colors) in Photoshop is immeasurably more complex than creating one with four colors (as in CMYK). You definitely have to jump through a few hoops to get your duotones to look good and separate properly; but the depth added by combining a second, third, or fourth color with a grayscale photo is awfully hard to beat.

Step One

Open the photo that you want to convert to a duotone. If you're starting with a color photo, you'll have to convert to grayscale first by going under the Image menu, under Mode, and choosing Grayscale. You'll get a warning dialog asking if you're sure you want to discard the colors, so just click OK.

Step Two

Once your photo is grayscale, you can go under the Image menu, under Mode, and choose Duotone. This may seem weird, but the first time you open the Duotone Options dialog, for some reason Adobe set the default Type of Duotone to Monotone (I know, it doesn't make sense). So, to actually get a duotone, you'll first have to select Duotone from the Type pop-up menu in the top left of the dialog.

Step Three

Now that Duotone is your selected Type, you have to choose which two inks you want to use. First, we'll look at Ink 1. The first box (the one with the diagonal line through it) is called the Curve Box, and this is where you determine how the color you choose will be distributed within your photo's highlights, midtones, and shadows. You determine this distribution using a curve. (Now don't stop reading if you don't know how to use Curvesyou don't need to know Curves to create a duotone, as you'll soon see.)

Step Four

The black box to the right of the Curve Box is the Color Box, in which you choose the color of Ink 1. By default, Ink 1 is set to black (that's actually pretty handy, because most duotones are made up of black and one other color). If you decide you don't want black as your Ink 1 color, just click on the Color Box and Photoshop's Color Picker will appear so you can choose a different color (but we're using black in this case).

Step Five

You'll notice that Ink 2's Color Box is white. That's because it's waiting for you to choose your second ink color. To do so, click on the box to bring up Photoshop's Color Libraries, in which you can choose the color you'd like from the list of PANTONE® colors. (Photoshop assumes you're going to print this duotone on a printing press, and that's why it displays the PANTONE colors as the default. If you want to choose a custom color, just click on the Picker button to use the Color Picker.)

Step Six

When you click OK in the Color Libraries dialog, the name of your Ink 2 color will appear beside the Color Box. Now that you've selected the two colors that will make up your duotone, it's time to determine the balance between them. Do you want more black in the shadows than your spot color? Should Ink 2 be stronger in the highlights? These decisions are determined in the Duotone Curve dialog for each ink, so click once on the Curves Box next to Ink 2 to bring up the dialog.

Step Seven

If you look at the fields in the middle of the dialog, the default curve is flat. It mimics your black color, in that equal amounts of orange (Ink 2) will appear in the highlights, midtones, and shadows. For example, the field marked 100% indicates that 100% of the shadow areas will get 100% orange ink. However, if you want less orange in the shadows, type in a lower number in the 100% field. In this example, I entered 80% for the 100% shadow areas, so the darkest shadow areas will get 20% less orange (and will appear blacker). For 70% ink density areas, I lowered it to 60%, and for the 50% midtone, I entered 35%. When you enter these numbers manually like this, you'll see that Photoshop builds the curve for you. Vice versa, if you click-and-drag in the curvePhotoshop fills in the amounts in the corresponding fields.

Step Eight

If the idea of creating your own curve freaks you out, all is not lost. Adobe figured that first-time Duotoners might get the "willies," so they included a bunch of presets using popular colors and pre-built duotone curves. These duotone presets were loaded on your computer when you first installed Photoshop. To load them into Photoshop's Duotone Options dialog, first click on the Cancel button in the Duotone Curve dialog we've been working in, and then click on the Load button in the Duotone Options dialog.

Step Nine

The Load dialog will appear, and by default Photoshop targets the Duotones folder on your drive. If for some reason it doesn't (it's been changed or you don't see the Duotones folder), then the search is onin this Load dialog, navigate to your Photoshop application folder. Then look for the Presets folder; inside you'll find a folder called Duotones. Within that folder, you'll find another folder named Duotones (you'll also see a folder called Tritones for mixing three colors and Quadtones for mixing four).

Step Ten

In the Load dialog, click on this Duotones folder, and inside that folder is (believe it or not) yet another folder called PANTONE Duotones. This is where Adobe carefully buried the individual presets for you to choose from. Each color listed gives you four choices. The first color choice includes a duotone curve that gives you the strongest amount of spot-color ink, progressing to the least amount with the fourth choice. Try a couple out by double-clicking on the duotone color that you want to load. You'll get an instant onscreen preview, so you can decide if the color (and amount) of Ink 2 are right. If they aren't, click Load again and pick another from the list to try.

Step Eleven

When you've got the combination that looks right to you, click OK in the Duotone Options dialog and the duotone will be applied to your photo. (Note: In the example shown here, I chose preset "144 orange 25% bl 1.")

Step Twelve

Okay, you've got what looks like a perfect duotone (onscreen anyway), but if it's going to press, before you save your file, you have to do a couple of simple but absolutely critical steps to ensure your duotone separates properly. Go under the File menu and choose Print with Preview. When the Print dialog appears, set the pop-up menu just below the preview to Output (it shows Color Management by default).

Step Thirteen

As your duotone is set right now, both colors have the same screen angle. This will likely cause a distracting pattern (called a moiré pattern) to appear across your entire photo when outputting to a printing press. To avoid this, have Photoshop assign separate screen angles for your duotone by clicking on the Screen button in the Print dialog, which brings up the Halftone Screen dialog. Then, click the Auto button to bring up the Auto Screens dialog.

Step Fourteen

In the Printer field of the Auto Screens dialog, enter the dots-per-inch (dpi) amount of the device your duotone will be output to. (In this case, I entered 2540, the resolution of the imagesetter that the prepress department of our print shop uses.) Then call the print shop that's printing your duotone, and ask them at what line screen your job will be printed. Enter that number in the Screen field. Also, turn on Use Accurate Screens (it could help, depending on the imagesetter that's used; otherwise, it will be ignored. Either way, no harm done).

Step Fifteen

Click OK to close the Auto Screens dialog with your new settings. You'll see in the Halftone Screen dialog that the screen frequencies have now been set for you. Don't change these settings or you'll undo the Auto Screens function you just applied (and risk ruining your print job).

Step Sixteen

Click OK in the Halftone Screen dialog, click Done in the Print dialog, and then those settings are saved. Now, the trick is to embed that information into your duotone so it separates and prints properly. Easyfrom the File menu, save your duotone as an EPS (choose Photoshop EPS from the Format pop-up menu in the Save As dialog). This will enable you to embed the screen info into your file to make sure it separates properly on press.

Step Seventeen

Once you click Save in the Save As dialog, you'll be presented with the EPS Options dialog. You only have to choose one optionInclude Halftone Screen. The screen angles that you set earlier will now be included with your file. Click OK to save your file, and your duotone is ready to be imported into your page-layout application. Note: When creating duotones, I recommend always printing a test to your color inkjet to make sure it separates correctly (giving you just two platesone black and one with your color tint). Another Note: Again, if you're printing straight from Photoshop to a color inkjet printer or some other desktop printer, you can skip all this setting screens, halftone dialogs, etc., and just hit Print. These extra steps are only necessary if you're going to output your duotone for reproduction on a printing press.

Original color image

Final duotone



    The Photoshop CS2 Book(c) for Digital Photographers
    The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
    ISBN: B002DMJUBS
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 187
    Authors: Scott Kelby

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