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JuDrus
Inspiring
April 17, 2023
Question

Color values are incorrect in my Illustrator

  • April 17, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 7326 views

Hello,

 

I have encountered this problem that my CMYK values in Illustrator (and Photoshop) are incorrect.

 

For example, I have made a logo and used these two colors in it, #F7931E and #1B1464. Then I created "logo usage guidelines" where I included color HEX codes, RGB, and CMYK values which were:

#F7931E;   RGB: 247, 147, 30;   CMYK: 0, 50, 99, 0

#1B1464;   RGB: 27, 20, 100;   CMYK: 100, 100, 26, 24

 

Then after some time, I received a message from a client that my provided CMYK values are incorrect and sent these two screenshots:

 

 

As you can see, my CMYK values are different from his screenshots

my 0, 50, 99, 0 = his 0, 40, 88, 3

my 100, 100, 26, 24 = his 73, 80, 0, 61

 

I thought that I f**ked up and somehow copied the wrong values... I opened Illustrator and my CMYK values were the same as those I provided to him...

Then I googled a bit and everywhere CMYK values were shown as my client sent me... I even found a formula for how CMYK values are generated from RGB values:

 

R = 247, G = 147, B = 30

 

C = 1 - (247 / 255) = 0.0314
M = 1 - (147 / 255) = 0.4235
Y = 1 - (30 / 255) = 0.8824

K = min(0.0314, 0.4235, 0.8824) = 0.0314

 

C = (0.0314 - 0.0314) / (1 - 0.0314) = 0
M = (0.4235 - 0.0314) / (1 - 0.0314) = 0.4048
Y = (0.8824 - 0.0314) / (1 - 0.0314) = 0.8784

 

CMYK: (0%, 40.48%, 87.84%, 3.14%); rounded (0%, 40%, 88%, 3%)

 

So I assume that there's something wrong with my Illustrator (and Photoshop) color settings and I am asking for your help.

This topic has been closed for replies.

4 replies

Participant
January 4, 2024

Hello,

 

I had a similar issue. Try the following steps:

1. go to "edit"

2. select "color settings"

3. in the settings dropdown select "Emulate Adobe Illustrator 6.0

 

Hope this helps. 

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 4, 2024

I am afraid that is bad advice. "Emulate Adobe Illustrator 6.0" Means no color management, no predictable color, just some numbers that can give a different color impression on various devices.

Legend
April 17, 2023

No, there is something wrong with the idea that you can get a CMYK value the same from typing hex. He internet is FULL if web sites with useless conversions. All of them, yes ALL of them are wrong. Photoshop and Illustrator do it right if you set up the correct CMYK and RGB profiles on a calibrated monitor. It may be hard to believe almost everyone is wrong, but there we are. 

JuDrus
JuDrusAuthor
Inspiring
April 17, 2023

Ok, so what should I do to give "correct" values? Because I have never seen logo usage guidelines or brandbook where it would say "hey, these color values are based on "U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2)" color management.

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 17, 2023

But that should be included in the brand guidelines.

Just giving some numbers without context doesn't mean a thing..

It is like giving a word without telling what the language is. Beer can be a drink in English, but in Dutch it means a bear.

2 colors with the same hex number can look totally different when the color profile is different.

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 17, 2023

The CMYK values you (and your client) finds online are not created with color management and are using a simple, wrong formula to convert RGB (Hex) to CMYK.

Adobe applications use Color Management to convert the RGB values to CMYK  by using the Color Profiles specified in your Color Settings.