Black & White Answers


There’s more to black and white than meets the eye. Some of the most impressive "black and white" photo reproductions are actually created using process colors and other techniques. Here’s how the best designers can turn a simple image into something sublime.


tip one

Go gray

One of the easiest ways to get better tonal gradations from a black and white image is to create a duotone with black and a match gray.

tip two

Quadruple quality with quadtones

Two hits of black, a match gray for tonal range and a fourth ink for whatever color tint effect you want to achieve.

tip three

Show your color bias

Use an original black and white halftone to make CMYK plates. Then manipulate each of the ink passes to “bias” the printed image. You can achieve rich, balanced color, or get different tint effects using the process colors.