Make a Duotone Photo

Map your photo’s dark and light tones to two colors you choose, then save a JPEG.

How to make a duotone photo

  1. Upload one image or PDF.
  2. Enter a Shadow color and a Highlight color as hex codes, then check the preview. They start as #1E3A5F (deep blue) and #F6C177 (warm gold).
  3. Download the JPEG.

What you can upload and what you get

  • One PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF image, or a PDF, up to 100 MB. Only the first PDF page or GIF frame is used.
  • Transparent areas are filled with white before the change is applied.
  • Large images are resized automatically to fit 4 million processing pixels and 8,192 pixels per side, keeping their proportions. Smaller images are not enlarged. You get a high-quality JPEG; original file metadata is not kept.

Questions

How are the two colors applied?

Each pixel’s brightness decides its color: black maps to the shadow color, white maps to the highlight color, and other tones blend between the two.

Which color codes can I enter?

Six-digit hex codes that start with #, for example #000000 for black. Upper- or lower-case letters both work.

Is the result ready for two-ink printing?

No. You get an ordinary full-color JPEG that looks like a duotone. It is not a vector file, a spot-color file or a print-separation proof.