Creating Duotones and Tint Effects

When your print budget is limited, working with custom color duotones and tints can become a necessity. But even when it’s not, duotones and tints can add some nice subtle color effects to a four-color print job. Photoshop provides us with several ways to add color sparingly—yet tastefully—to your design work.

Duotone Mode
Smaller print budgets can sometimes limit you to a two-spot-color design, in which case Photoshop’s duotone mode is the perfect solution. Duotone mode allows you to create flexible yet stylish images quickly and easily. You must start out with a grayscale image. If your image is currently in RGB or CMYK mode, you can use any of the methods described in the previous section to convert it to grayscale. You can then convert the grayscale image to Duotone mode by choosing Image --> Mode --> Duotone. This automatically launches the Duotone Options dialog box.

The curves settings for Ink 1 and Ink 2 in the Duotone Options dialog box let you control precisely how each color is applied to the range of tones in your image. You can either set your own curves or use one of the Photoshop presets. To use one of the presets, click the Load button and choose one from the Presets folder. To create your own color curves, click the color swatch for Ink 1 and Ink 2 to access the Color Picker. Click the Color Libraries button and choose a spot color swatch book type from the Book menu. Select a color and click OK. After the colors are chosen, click the curves box next to each color swatch and adjust how the color is applied by dragging the curve. Make sure the Preview check box is selected in order to see the applied color change as you make your curves adjustment.

Sepia and Other Tint Effects
Photoshop also allows you to apply sepia tones and other tint effects to grayscale images. There are several ways to apply these kinds of effects besides using Duotone mode. By using the following tint techniques, you can apply color to a grayscale image that has been converted to either RGB or CMYK mode.

Black And White Adjustment Layer This new adjustment layer allows you to convert color images to black-and-white or to apply a tint effect. Using the adjustment layer instead of the Image --> Adjustment --> Black And White command offers more flexibility and control, because it allows you to make changes to the adjustment at any time after it is applied. Select the Tint check box at the bottom of the Black and White dialog to enable the Tint feature. Make sure the Preview check box is selected in order  to see the applied color. The default color is a light sepia tone, but this can be changed by clicking the swatch and choosing a different color with the Color Picker, or by adjusting the Hue slider. To control how vivid the color tint appears, adjust the Saturation slider. Click OK to apply the adjustment.

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer Colorize Option You can also add a tint effect to a grayscale image that has been converted to RGB or CMYK by applying a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Simply click the Colorize check box and move the Hue and Saturation sliders until the tint appears the way you’d like it.

Color Overlay Layer Style Another way to tint an image is to apply a Color Overlay layer style. First convert the Background layer by double-clicking it in the Layers palette and clicking OK when the Layer Options dialog box appears. Next, choose Color Overlay from the Layer Styles pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette. Then click the color swatch at the top of the dialog and choose a color with the Color Picker. After the color is chosen, click OK to close the Color Picker. Finally, choose Color from the Blend Mode list and set the opacity for the color tint. Click OK to apply the layer style.

Gradient Map Adjustment Layer By applying a Gradient Map adjustment layer, you can add a tint to an image no matter whether it is grayscale or full color. Again, using the adjustment layer instead of the Image --> Adjustment --> Gradient Map command offers more flexibility and control, because it allows you to make changes to the adjustment at any time after it is applied. After you’ve added a Gradient Map adjustment layer, choose a preset gradient from the dialog, or if you’ve already prepared and saved one, choose a custom gradient from the gradient list. Click OK to apply the gradient map. Set the layer blend mode to Color to finalize the tint effect. If necessary, lower the layer opacity value.