Working with Duotone Mode


Suppose you start with a color photo you ve scanned. Open your RGB image and then look in the Image Mode submenu. You ll see that the Duotone mode is grayed out, unavailable as an option. To convert an image to Duotone mode, you first have to convert it to Grayscale mode. Wait! Before you do that, it s best to correct tonal and color values first, using Levels, Curves, or the other adjustment features discussed in Chapter 16, Adjusting Tonality and Color. Get the image exactly where you want it before you reduce it to a single channel. In fact, take a look at your color channels individually. You might find something there you like (the Green channel in an RGB image might contain a convincing microcosm of the whole, for example). Even better, use the Channel Mixer to get the perfect grayscale image. After you re happy with it, choose Image Mode Grayscale. If you want to do any further tweaking, do it while you re in Grayscale mode. Then choose Image Mode Duotone (see Figure 18.1). Now you re in Duotone country.

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Figure 18.1: The Duotone Options dialog box

From the Duotone Options dialog box, choose a Type ”that is, the number of inks you want to use, up to four. Monotones are just colored halftones , Duotones use two inks, Tritones three, and Quadtones you guessed it. You can set curves and choose colors individually for each ink. Click an ink s color box to display the Color Picker. Because Duotones are usually printed in specific ink colors, you ll want to specify a custom ink. Click an ink swatch in the Duotone dialog box and then Custom in the Color Picker to display the Custom Color dialog box. Choose from a variety of ink swatch books and colors. Then click OK. (For more on custom colors, see Chapter 10, Creating and Applying Color. ) If you plan to import the Duotone into a page layout document, make a note of the names of your inks. Make sure the Duotone ink has exactly the same name as the other application s color dialog box. If necessary, reopen the Duotone Options dialog box and rename the ink so that the page layout program will recognize it. When you open the dialog box, Monotone is the default color Type. The designated Ink 1 color is Black, and Inks 2, 3, and 4 are grayed out.

To choose a second ink, choose Duotone from the Type list; Ink 1 will default to Black, and the Ink 2 swatch will be White. Click the swatch, and the Custom Colors dialog box is displayed. The default book (a term derived from the color swatch books produced by ink manufacturers to display their inks) is PANTONE solid coated (see Figure 18.2). Choose an ink color from the list and click OK. Define additional inks in the same way for Tritones and Quadtones. The color bar at the bottom of the Duotone dialog box displays the range, from light to dark, of the color mix you ve specified. The image window also has a live preview. When you specify colors, the image displays the changes on-screen.

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Figure 18.2: Choosing the color of Duotone ink
Note  

When you define ink colors for Duotones, Tritones, and Quadtones, make sure the darkest ink is at the top and the lightest is at the bottom. When Duotone images print, the inks are applied in the order in which they appear in the dialog box. Allowing the darker inks to print first provides for a uniform color range from shadows to highlights.




Photoshop CS Savvy
Photoshop CS Savvy
ISBN: 078214280X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 355

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