How To Create Duotone Images

Here's my MASSIVE write-up/instructions on how to create a Duotone image. It's really quite easy to do.

Duotone is a generic name applied to Monotone, Duotone, Tritone, & Quadtone photos. What all of these do is allow you to choose the specific colors that you want to comprise your image. The names are indicative of how many colors are used; Monotone uses one color, Duotone uses two colors, Tritone uses three colors, & Quadtone uses four colors.

True Duotones will utilize a printing press with only the selected spot colors to create the image. Meaning, if you select Pantone 311C (an aqua color) & Pantone Black 6C, your image will use only those two premixed inks, not the typical four inks in CMYK. This could potentially save you on printing costs, if offset printing.

To start off, you want to open the image you will be working with in Photoshop. Make sure the image is flattened completely. Now, go up to Image, Mode, & select Grayscale. A prompt will come up & you will click on discard. Go back up to Image, Mode, & you will see that Duotone is now an available option. Select that. An option box appears. First thing you want to do is make sure that the Preview box is checked underneath the Cancel button on the right. Next, you will see a dropdown to the left of the word Type. Here, is where you select how many colors you want as a Monotone, Duotone, Tritone, or Quadtone. If you toggle through each one, you will see the number of inks increase below. The default color for the first ink should be Black and the subsequent inks are left blank. For this example, I will select Duotone from the dropdown.

If you’d like you can go up to the Preset dropdown and scroll through the various combinations that Photoshop has available. This can be a good starting point when experimenting with colors. I will select “cyan bl 1” for now.

You will now see the Ink 2 fill box filled with Cyan, while Ink 1 stayed the same. To the left you will notice. Much, if not all of Photoshop’s presets utilize Black as Ink 1, but you can of course change that. To change the ink color without presets, simply click on the ink color box you want to change. You can then select a different color using the Color Picker or the Color Library.

Next to each color box, you will see a curve. These curves are very similar to the curves that you typically use in your full color images, but are directly related to each color of ink. You can change the contrast and brightness or darkness of the selected ink here. You can do so by clicking & creating new points along the curve, dragging existing points, &/or typing a numeric value into the fields to the right.

Once you are satisfied with how the image looks, click OK. If you need to go back in edit the Duotone curves or colors, simply go to Image, Mode, & click on Duotone again. Change the ink colors & curves like before.

Once you are done editing & would like to keep the Duotone as a True Duotone (or edit it later), you will want to go to File, Save As, & select the appropriate format. Saving the file as a PSD is likely the safest option.

If you just want the tonal effect of a Duotone, & will be printing on a standard printer, you can change the Mode back to RGB or CMYK & save the file as a JPEG, TIFF, or any other option. **But note, that you can no longer edit the Duotone as you did before. You will need to first convert it to Grayscale again, then Duotone, & reselect all of your settings.**