Photoshop

View the individual colors of a duotone image

Because duotones are single-channel images, your adjustments to individual printing inks are displayed as part of the final composite image. In some cases, you may want to view the individual “printing plates” to see how the individual colors will separate when printed (as you can with CMYK images).

  1. After specifying your ink colors, choose Image > Mode > Multichannel.

    The image is converted to Multichannel mode, with each channel represented as a spot color channel. The contents of each spot channel accurately reflect the duotone settings, but the on‑screen composite preview may not be as accurate as the preview in Duotone mode.

    Note: If you make any changes to the image in Multichannel mode, you can’t revert to the original duotone state (unless you can access the duotone state in the History palette). To adjust the distribution of ink and view its effect on the individual printing plates, make the adjustments in the Duotone Curves dialog box before converting to Multichannel mode.
  2. Select the channel you want to examine in the Channels palette.
  3. Choose Edit > Undo Multichannel to revert to Duotone mode.