posted
Nice. You're getting to be something of an specialist at these. What kind of stock are they printing it on/finish? I tend to think matte finish on an offwhite, course stock would be nice, but I'm no expert.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Yah, definitely not a gloss stock. And I want something with a little tooth to it, not something smooth. The paper we printed the cover of our annual report on springs to mind, but that was kind of pricey. So I need to talk to the printer about it tomorrow when she comes to pick up the files.
As far as being a specialist on two color work, it's funny you say that. One of the printers we use likes my two-color treatment so much, she keeps trying to feed me freelance work from clients who need things designed. I've been booked every time she's asked though. I hate turning down money...
posted
Ok, Rune. You have to let me in on your secret. How are you getting these to look so fantastic? I've been playing with Duotone images for months and cant get close to this quality. Let me in on your secret!
Or better yet, post your source files! (j/k)
But seriously, how about a little mini tutorial?
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
OK, I'll assume you're working with Photoshop.
Start with your photo in RGB. Go into your channels pallette and pull out one of the channels. In this case, I yanked out the green channel.
The color will get all weird and you'll be left with two channels. Photoshop will probably rename them to Cyan and Yellow. Double click on the channel and a naming window will come up. Click on the color swatch to bring up the picker window. Then click custom and pick a PMS color. Repeat the second channel.
The key is to pick two PMS colors that give you the look that you want. I used an orange and a dark blue for this one.
You can then manipulate the channels in any number of ways. Adjust the levels, the curves, blur it, whatever.
For this photo, I adjusted the curves on both channels and blured the orange channel to give it a soft, glowy effect.
Save as a DCS 2.0 file (it's an EPS file) with an 8-bit TIFF preview and click both the check boxes available in the saving options. You can now bring the file into apps like PageMaker.
Adding text and other elements is a little harder and it involves working from your original RGB mockup. If you want, I'll get into that too.
Registered: Oct 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Aban Rune: OK, I'll assume you're working with Photoshop.
Start with your photo in RGB. Go into your channels pallette and pull out one of the channels. In this case, I yanked out the green channel.
The color will get all weird and you'll be left with two channels. Photoshop will probably rename them to Cyan and Yellow. Double click on the channel and a naming window will come up. Click on the color swatch to bring up the picker window. Then click custom and pick a PMS color. Repeat the second channel.
The key is to pick two PMS colors that give you the look that you want. I used an orange and a dark blue for this one.
You can then manipulate the channels in any number of ways. Adjust the levels, the curves, blur it, whatever.
For this photo, I adjusted the curves on both channels and blured the orange channel to give it a soft, glowy effect.
Save as a DCS 2.0 file (it's an EPS file) with an 8-bit TIFF preview and click both the check boxes available in the saving options. You can now bring the file into apps like PageMaker.
Adding text and other elements is a little harder and it involves working from your original RGB mockup. If you want, I'll get into that too.
Wow. I was converting the image to Duotone mode and adjusting colors from there. No wonder it was a bitch... im going to try this now. Thanks for the help!
I use InDesign for text layout.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
We'll be upgrading to InDesign (in fact, the whole bloody Creative Suite) next year.
I used to convert to duotone, then to multichannel too. Pulling the RGB channel out keeps everything alot more natural looking. Depending on what colors you pick, you can get it looking darn near realistic. But you always get this nice, muted, nostalgic look.
InDesign will probably be able to solve this problem, but in PageMaker, you can't assign text more than one PMS color, so getting the nice mix of colors that makes this technique work isn't easy. You have to make the text part of the graphic, which involes copying the text out of your RGB mockup and placing it each color channel on your final file. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard, but it is a pain in the butt.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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