Two inks. One photo.
Map photo luminance to a two-color gradient. Eight presets — Spotify, sunset, sea & sky, mono, moss, punk, riso, editorial — or pick your own shadow and highlight. Bias the midtones. Nothing uploads. For brand systems, grab a proper app.
Make a duotone photo
Map a photo onto two colours — one for the shadows, one for the highlights — the way a two-ink press would print it.
What you can change
- Presets
- Shadow
- Highlight
- Midtone bias
- Swap inks
How it works
- 01Drop in a photo, or open one of the samples.
- 02Pick a preset (Spotify, sunset, sea & sky, mono, moss, punk, editorial, riso) or set the two inks yourself, then push the midtone bias toward one ink or the other.
- 03Download it at full resolution. Nothing is uploaded — the work happens in this browser tab.
Mixing the inks…
Make a duotone photo
Map a photo onto two colours — one for the shadows, one for the highlights — the way a two-ink press would print it.
What you can change
- Presets
- Shadow
- Highlight
- Midtone bias
- Swap inks
How it works
- 01Drop in a photo, or open one of the samples.
- 02Pick a preset (Spotify, sunset, sea & sky, mono, moss, punk, editorial, riso) or set the two inks yourself, then push the midtone bias toward one ink or the other.
- 03Download it at full resolution. Nothing is uploaded — the work happens in this browser tab.
Mixing the inks…
Six places duotone lands harder than full color
- 01 for spotify-vibe
A navy/pink playlist cover
The Spotify playlist cover aesthetic is a duotone — usually a deep blue mapped to a hot pink. Pick the Spotify preset, drop a portrait, hit download. Drop straight into a playlist or a band's social. Recognizable on sight.
- 02 for posters
A two-color band poster from a single photo
Show flyers don't need photo realism — they need contrast and identity. Punk preset (ink shadow, terracotta highlight) on a portrait gives you a flyer-ready hero. Print on cream stock, type the band name in big serif over the top.
- 03 for editorial
A magazine-style portrait treatment
Editorial portraits often go duotone for a 'considered' feel — navy/cream or moss/butter. The original photo's tonal information stays; the colors get unified into the magazine's palette. Pair with a serif headline.
- 04 for branding
A team headshot gallery in your brand colors
Team headshots from 14 different rooms with 14 different lights look like a unified team after duotone. Apply your brand's two colors as shadow/highlight; suddenly every face is part of the same visual system.
- 05 for moodboard
Pinterest pins that look paid
Mood-board pins with consistent duotone treatment get repinned more — they read as 'a curated set' instead of 'random photos'. Run all your reference shots through the same preset; suddenly your board feels like a designer's, not a hobbyist's.
- 06 for art
A riso-feel portrait without a riso machine
Risograph machines print one color at a time on absorbent paper, producing a textural two-color look. Riso preset (terracotta on cream) approximates that with fewer steps. Pair with the Halftone tool for the full risograph illusion.
Frequently asked
Does the photo upload anywhere? +
No. The duotone mapping runs pixel-by-pixel in your browser. Your photo never touches our servers — we don't run an image pipeline at all.
How does duotone differ from B&W? +
B&W maps every pixel to a grey based on luminance. Duotone maps every pixel to a *colored* value based on luminance, where the darkest pixels become your shadow color and the lightest become your highlight color. Same tonal structure as B&W, but with chromatic identity.
What does the midtone bias dial change? +
It bends the gamma curve of the luminance-to-colour mapping. Below 100 the midtones pull toward the shadow ink, so the image reads darker and moodier. Above 100 they pull toward the highlight ink, so it reads brighter and punchier. The shadow and highlight ends stay where you put them either way.
Can I match my brand colors exactly? +
Yes — the color pickers accept any hex code. For best duotone results, pick a dark-ish shadow color (under #555 luminance) and a light-ish highlight color (above #BBB luminance). Mid-tone shadow and mid-tone highlight will produce a flat, posterized result.
Why does my portrait look strange? +
Faces have specific tonal expectations — skin should sit between shadow and highlight. If your highlight is super-saturated (hot pink, lime), faces can look alien. Try the Editorial or Mono presets first to see clean output, then nudge from there.
How big is the export? +
Same dimensions as your source photo. JPG at 92% quality. For social-ready sizes, run through Crop & Resize afterward.
now what?
A few finishes after a two-colour map
next →
Halftone Effect
Layer halftone dots over the duotone for a riso-comic feel.
Open
next →
Film Grain
Dust the flat tones with Tri-X grain for analog texture.
Open
next →
Diptych Maker
Put the duotone next to the original, side by side.
Open
next →
Color Palette
Pull the exact hex codes back out of the result.
Open
next →
Social Banner
Crop wide for a LinkedIn or X header.
Open
next →
Drop Shadow
Float the duotone over paper for a poster mockup.
OpenThe rest of this shelf
Photo Filters
Eight looks plus the original — vintage to cinematic.
Open
Pencil Sketch
Photo to graphite drawing in two clicks.
Open
Tilt-Shift Effect
Make real cities look like tabletop dioramas.
Open
Light Leak
Sunset, lomo red, golden hour — bleed light into corners.
Open
RGB Glitch
VHS bands, anaglyph 3D, CRT scanlines, chromatic aberration.
Open
ASCII Art
Convert any photo to typed characters.
Open Make proper layouts
in a proper app.
One duotone photo is a piece. When you want a brand kit — duotone applied across 50 photos with consistent type, layout, and spacing — a real design app handles it cleanly.