by yanliudesign
One-ink editorial print image skill — warm paper, halftone photography, active negative space, and restrained typography.
# Add to your Claude Code skills
git clone https://github.com/yanliudesign/mono-color-skillGuides for using ai agents skills like mono-color-skill.
mono-color-skill is an open-source ai agents skill for AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, and ChatGPT, built by yanliudesign. One-ink editorial print image skill — warm paper, halftone photography, active negative space, and restrained typography. It has 58 GitHub stars.
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Clone the repository with "git clone https://github.com/yanliudesign/mono-color-skill" and add it to your Claude Code skills directory (see the Installation section above). mono-color-skill ships a SKILL.md manifest, so compatible agents can discover and load it automatically.
mono-color-skill is primarily written in Python. It is open-source under yanliudesign on GitHub, so you can review or fork the full source.
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Turn any user theme or image into an original printed editorial artifact with one stable visual language:
adaptive neutral substrate + one or two inks + reproduced image + typographic tension + concise human voice
Do not imitate any one reference. Recombine the system below into a new composition every time.
Create:
Save generated files under ~/Desktop/Claude skills/mono-color/ when a file path is available. Create the folder if needed. Stop at prompt-only only when the user explicitly asks for it or no image-generation capability is available.
Extract four things before composing:
For a complex topic, choose one concrete visual metaphor. Do not illustrate every point.
When the user supplies an image, preserve its identity and core factual content. In faithful reproduction, crop, isolate, enlarge, simplify, or convert it to halftone. In abstract symbol extraction, preserve 2-4 identifying anchors while replacing photographic description with simplified masses, contours, repeated marks, and exposed paper. Never replace the subject or invent branded details.
Before writing the generation prompt, resolve the input into this manifest. Do not skip fields and do not expose the manifest unless the user asks for process details.
Use the machine-readable catalogs in design-system/ as the source of truth for palette IDs, typography roles, composition geometry, carrier signals, visual rhythm, and controlled print imperfections. Read only the relevant catalog for the current decision. The prose below explains intent; when an exact value differs, the catalog wins.
subject: <one recognizable subject>
intent: <one intent from Input Reading>
exact_text: <user text, generated 2-8 word phrase, or none>
text_language: <language of supplied text, otherwise English>
representation: <faithful reproduction or abstract symbol extraction>
ratio: <explicit ratio or 3:4>
carrier: <one carrier ID from design-system/carriers.json or none>
substrate: <one substrate ID and exact hex from design-system/colors.json>
mode: <pure one-ink, chromatic + black, complementary duotone, or overprint duotone>
palette: <one palette ID from design-system/colors.json>
inks: <the palette's named ink or approved pair with exact hex values>
plate_roles: <one explicit role per ink plate>
layout: <one composition ID from design-system/compositions.json>
empty_paper: <explicit percentage>
visual_tension: <relaxed, balanced, or assertive from design-system/rhythm.json>
focal_event: <one strong visual event from design-system/rhythm.json>
release_zone: <one deliberately quiet region that gives the focal event room>
unresolved_edge: <one optional edge behavior from design-system/rhythm.json or none>
image_treatment: <one mechanical reproduction process>
type_hierarchy: <one role ID from design-system/typography.json>
disruption: <one deliberate disruption>
imperfection_seed: <stable hash derived from the resolved recipe>
imperfections: <0-2 restrained effect IDs for contemporary work, or 2-3 for tactile/vintage work>
Use these defaults whenever the user has not made the choice:
3:4;faithful reproduction, unless the user asks for abstract, artistic, loose, experimental, less realistic, or less photographic treatment;#FAFAF7, Cool Gray #E9E9E5, or Pale Beige #F5F1E8 according to the subject, image values, and ink contrast. Neutral White is the unspecified default; never assume beige or aged paper merely because the work uses halftone or risograph language;#2148B8 + #C65F38 for an unspecified subject, then select the closest approved pair for the subject. The dominant plate carries 70%-85% and the accent plate carries 15%-30%. Switch to pure one-ink only when the user explicitly requests one ink, monochrome, or one named ink without a second color;35%;relaxed for reflective, travel, summer, leisure, lifestyle, and unspecified cultural subjects; balanced for ordinary events and editorial information; assertive only when the user requests a forceful declaration or the phrase itself is the subject;Explicit user choices override defaults unless they violate the two-ink limit or the originality firewall. For identical inputs, resolve the same manifest; do not vary palette, layout, percentages, or process merely for novelty. This stabilizes the design procedure while image-generation details may still vary.
Resolve generic color words consistently: blue to Cobalt, green to Botanical Green, orange to Terracotta Orange, red to Signal Red, purple to Aubergine, and black to Charcoal. For generic green + black, use Mint Green + Charcoal. For generic blue + orange, use Cobalt + Terracotta. Exact named inks always take precedence over these aliases.
Default to controlled two-ink. Give the dominant and accent plates separate content roles before composing; never use the second ink merely to decorate the page. Switch to pure one-ink when the user explicitly requests one ink, monochrome, or one named ink without a second color. The paper substrate does not count as an ink.
#FAFAF7, Cool Gray #E9E9E5, or Pale Beige #F5F1E8. White suits crisp cultural, social, event, and colorful image-led work; cool gray suits architecture, technology, charcoal-led systems, and restrained branding; pale beige suits tactile, food, travel, intimate, archival, or explicitly nostalgic subjects.#2148B8, the default for technology, knowledge, cities, music, and cultural subjects.#2058D4, a brighter branch for youth culture, fashion, movement, and energetic editorial pages.#008A4B, for botanical, ecological, archival, and explicitly green subjects.#5EB783, for observation journals, soft natural subjects, and quiet editorial photography.#C65F38, for classical art, food, travel, summer, and tactile objects.#C83232, for declarations, music, events, and civic or public-culture subjects.#63365F, for literature, cinema, night, and intimate cultural subjects.#30343A, for architecture, photography, research, and restrained publications.Use a known pair rather than improvising arbitrary colors:
#9EB8D3 + #C83232 for guides, announcements, and information-heavy editorial pages.#2148B8 + #C65F38 for travel, summer, food, and lifestyle subjects.#008A4B + #8F3434 for plants, natural wine, bookstores, and archives.#30343A + #C83232 for architecture, exhibitions, reports, and conceptual work.#173AE3 + #242321 for high-contrast cultural events and image-led editorial pages.#5EB783 + #302D2E for journals, essays, observations, and long-form reading.#263E99 + #E55D2B for movement, objects, youth culture, and active urban subjects.#159DDA + #B64032 for repeated products, exhibitions, and playful information systems.#E46C2D + #4773A5 for markets, festivals, illustrated notices, and large typographic compositions.Assign each plate a role before composing. Never scatter two colors as arbitrary decoration. These constraints keep the result mechanically printed rather than digitally color-graded.
3:4 vertical poster. Respect a user-specified ratio.Negative space is active pacing, not leftover room.
Read design-system/rhythm.json whenever the user asks for relaxed, loose, effortless, casual, quiet, breezy, or understated work, or when the default intent maps to relaxed. Treat relaxation as a compositional decision, not a soft-focus mood.
Relaxation is uneven energy, not low energy. For relaxed work, choose exactly one strong focal event: oversized type, an extreme crop, one giant object or detail, a concentrated overprint collision, or one abnormal scale relationship. Let it feel decisive. Then release the rest of the page with open paper, pale screening, sparse support type, or one quiet alignment. Do not make every element tasteful, small, or equally calm.
The reference set shares an object-and-type construction, not a generic retro mood. Build every page from these four moves:
Choose one dominant object and one dominant typographic event before adding secondary information. If either is missing, simplify rather than filling the page with mood-setting decoration.
Convert photographs and illustrations into the selected ink plate or plates plus substrate. Choose reproduction intensity from the subject instead of automatically aging every image:
When no source image is supplied, do not default to a polished photorealistic hero person or a complete stock-photo figure. Prefer 2-4 identifying anchors such as a hand on a handlebar, one bent leg, a wheel arc, loose fabric, or hair direction. Build the subject from a partial editorial crop, simplified screened fragment, and one ordinary in-between gesture. For movement subjects, the object or cropped body relationship may carry the focal event while the person remains incomplete. Avoid advertising poses, victory gestures, athletic hero angles, catalog-style full bodies, and the safe headline-left/photo-right split unless the user asks for them.
When representation is abstract symbol extraction, transform the supplied image into a small visual vocabulary instead of applying a stylized filter to the whole photograph:
For complementary duotone abstraction, assign the dominant ink to structure and rhythm, and reserve the accent ink for one identity anchor or one annotation. Do not distribute the accent evenly across the page.
Keep composition, wording, palette, and hierarchy deterministic. Introduce looseness only in the reproduction layer. Contemporary work selects 0-2 restrained effects; tactile, vintage, or archival-aging work selects 2-3 effects from design-system/imperfections.json with the resolved recipe's stable seed.
Use one dominant image zone occupying 45%-80% of the page, 1-3 isolated specimens whose combined area stays in that range, or one repeated object system. A ruled information poster may reduce the image zone to 32%-55% only when real supplied information needs the space. Dense overlap is allowed only in the overprint collage family; it must still read as two printing plates rather than scrapbook decoration.
Build tension with two voices, never more than three:
Choose one hierarchy:
Rules:
relaxed work, create a clear strength difference: one typographic move may be audacious while all supporting type becomes sparse and functional.Write like an independent cultural poster, field journal, or community print notice:
For summer, movement, travel, leisure, music, and night subjects, make romantic freedom the default emotional register. Express it through a physical sensation, an open direction, an unhurried gesture, or a small relationship between subject and space. Favor fresh English fragments such as an observation or invitation, never a generic motivational slogan. For factual, civic, scientific, or archival subjects, let clarity override this romantic default.
If text must be invented, prefer an English observation, plain declaration, object label, or small contradiction. Never reuse wording visible in reference images or repeat a stock phrase across unrelated outputs.
For romantic, intimate, nostalgic, or poetic prompts, express feeling through one observable relationship: two figures sharing one edge, an object carrying signs of use, a crop that implies closeness, or a small distance between forms. Do not default to string lights, wine glasses, fluttering fabric, stars, flowers, sunset silhouettes, or cinematic haze. Those props describe a romance category; a specific relationship creates romance while preserving the reference set's graphic directness.
Choose the layout from the content, not at random. Walk this list from top to bottom and use the first matching rule unless the user explicitly requests a layout:
Write the final prompt in five compact paragraphs, in this order:
Describe only visible outcomes. Do not mention reference artists, studios, sample posters, or “in the style of.”
The reference is evidence for a visual grammar, never a layout to trace.
Before generation, change at least four of these from any supplied reference:
Never reproduce a reference's exact object arrangement, line breaks, labels, dates, logos, border system, or distinctive slogan. Never include fake signatures or publication marks. If the user's source image contains protected or branded material, transform only the user's provided material and avoid presenting the result as an official artifact.
Always exclude:
**生成图**

**最终 Prompt**
```text
[prompt used for generation]
```
**本次配方**
- Mode: [pure one-ink / chromatic + black / complementary duotone / overprint duotone]
- Ink: [exact one- or two-ink palette and hex values]
- Layout: [layout family]
- Type: [editorial voice + utility voice]
- Process: [halftone/risograph/cyanotype/photocopy treatment]
- Originality: [one sentence naming the major structural departures from references]
中文 · English
A one-ink and controlled two-ink editorial image skill for posters, zines, portraits, packaging, and visual field notes.
Turn a theme, sentence, object, or supplied photograph into an original editorial image. The skill defaults to controlled two-ink with one dominant plate and one narrowly assigned accent plate. Explicit one-ink or monochrome requests remain pure one-ink. White, cool gray, or pale-beige substrates are selected from the image and palette; contemporary editorial is the default, while vintage treatment appears only when requested.
It preserves a visual system rather than copying a reference. Every composition is rebuilt around the subject, intent, words, and image role.
| 01 | 02 | 03 |
|---|---|---|
| 04 | 05 | 06 |
| 07 | 08 | 09 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 |
This reference set defines the visual territory, not compositions to reproduce. Each new result rebuilds the subject, crop, grid, type hierarchy, and print treatment from scratch.
| System | Direction |
|---|---|
| Input | A theme, phrase, object, article idea, or supplied photograph |
| Palette | Adaptive neutral white, cool gray, or pale beige + controlled two-ink by default; explicit one-ink requests stay one-ink |
| Modes | Pure one-ink, chromatic + black, complementary duotone, or overprint duotone |
| Image | Halftone, risograph grain, cyanotype exposure, or photocopy breakup |
| Space | 25%–55% visible empty paper on an asymmetric editorial grid |
| Type | Serif editorial voice + condensed sans or monospaced utility voice |
| Output | Generated raster image, exact production prompt, and a short recipe |
All of these formats can use a single ink to reduce production costs while retaining a distinctive visual identity.
1 Read the input → identify subject, intent, words, and image role
2 Choose the layout → image, specimen, declaration, object field, overprint, journal, or cover
3 Assign the plates → default to two assigned roles; switch to one plate when explicitly requested
4 Compose the page → preserve 25%–55% silence and add one deliberate disruption
5 Generate and inspect → check ink count, identity, hierarchy, texture, and originality
One-ink palette: Cobalt, Royal Blue, Botanical Green, Mint Green, Terracotta Orange, Signal Red, Aubergine, and Charcoal.
| Swatch | Ink | Hex |
|---|---|---|
| Cobalt / Ultramarine | #2148B8 |
|
| Royal Blue | #2058D4 |
|
| Botanical Green | #008A4B |
|
| Mint Green | #5EB783 |
|
| Terracotta Orange | #C65F38 |
|
| Signal Red | #C83232 |
|
| Aubergine | #63365F |
|
| Charcoal | #30343A |
Two-ink recipes: Powder Blue + Signal Red, Cobalt + Terracotta, Botanical Green + Oxblood, Charcoal + Signal Red, Electric Blue + Carbon, Mint Green + Charcoal, Ultramarine + Safety Orange, Cyan + Brick Red, and Tangerine + Slate Blue.
| Swatches | Two-ink recipe | Hex |
|---|---|---|
| Powder Blue + Signal Red | #9EB8D3 + #C83232 |
|
| Cobalt + Terracotta | #2148B8 + #C65F38 |
|
| Botanical Green + Oxblood | #008A4B + #8F3434 |
|
| Charcoal + Signal Red | #30343A + #C83232 |
|
| Electric Blue + Carbon | #173AE3 + #242321 |
|
| Mint Green + Charcoal | #5EB783 + #302D2E |
|
| Ultramarine + Safety Orange | #263E99 + #E55D2B |
|
| Cyan + Brick Red | #159DDA + #B64032 |
|
| Tangerine + Slate Blue | #E46C2D + #4773A5 |
In two-ink work, the dominant plate normally carries 70%–85% of the printed area. The accent plate carries 15%–30% and must have a specific job such as dates, annotations, selected objects, or overprint intersections. The substrate is not a third color, and the darker color created where two plates overlap is not a third ink.
Substrate is adaptive, not nostalgic by default: Neutral White #FAFAF7 supports crisp cultural, social, event, and image-led work; Cool Gray #E9E9E5 supports architecture, technology, charcoal-led systems, and restrained branding; Pale Beige #F5F1E8 supports tactile, travel, food, intimate, archival, or explicitly nostalgic subjects. Limited inks and halftone do not automatically imply vintage styling.
Clone the repository into your Claude Code skills directory:
git clone https://github.com/yanliudesign/mono-color-skill.git \
~/.claude/skills/mono-color
Restart Claude Code after installation. Other agent environments can load SKILL.md as the skill entry point.
Use mono-color to make a vertical poster about a midnight convenience store.
The exact headline is “still open”.
Turn this portrait into a cobalt one-ink editorial zine cover.
Keep the person's identity and expression.
Create a botanical-green risograph field note about ferns.
The title is “field note 07”.
Create an Ultra