chadthebad
Print & Web Design
Duotones, Monotones, and InDesign
The question was asked today: How do I create a picture that's full color as a 2-color, partially black & white picture from my rgb jpeg I have?
The person was creating an annual report that will be printed 2-color on a press, so we had to create a file that didn't just look 2-color, but was actually separatable into a blue nd black plate.
There are many ways to achieve this, and I'm definetly not one to tell you this is the way you should do it, but the following are the steps I took to achieve the desired outcome.
Step 1 - The Background
I Started with getting my clouds the desired color. To do this I had to change the Image Mode to Grayscale first, then to Duotone. In the Duotone Dialog box you can choose the type of "duotone" you want to use - specifically monotone. After playing around with my color choices I settled on Pantone 385 for the clouds. So now you have a monotone picture that is entirely PMS 285. Save that as a Photoshop document and open your original photo again.
Step 2 - The Foreground
Now what you need to do is separate out your foreground. Do this by deleting all of your background. Take note: if you background is white, this will not work, you need to copy your foreground and paste it into a new document that is the same size as the background image you created earlier. You need to make sure that you place the foreground exactly where it is positioned in the Background image. You also need to make sure the background is set to "Transparent" in the New Document Dialog Box. You can tell the background is transparent if you see the gray and white checkerboard behind your photo. In the photo above you can see I have already converted the picture to grayscale. Save this file as a photoshop document also.
Step 3 - Let Indesign do the work
Now that you have the 2 images ready, place both of them into InDesign (Background under the Foreground). You should have something that looks similar to this:
If you check your Separations Preview you can see that the image is only on the PMS 285 and Black Plate. Success! But something about the picture kind of still bugs me. I think it is the sharp contrast from blue to black. So you can use Indesign to create a duotone.
In the "fx" panel there is a dropdown menu for the type of transparency used. It's default is normal, but we will use the mulitple choice. There. Much better in my opinion. I hope this tutorial helps you. It was my first one, and I hope to do many more. If you have any suggestions, please email me.
-ctb
About Me
I have been a graphic designer for various companies and print shops for the past 10 years, and have expanded my services to include web design as well.
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