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V
Valentina5EC7
Participant
June 2, 2021
Answered

Illustrator not displaying correct colours

  • June 2, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 3782 views

When I design in Illustrator (CMYK) for print and I export the file, the colours are very different (muted, dark). Does anyone know how to ensure that Illustrator displays the correct colours when designing? So the colour is the same after I export it? I know that the colours may still differ once printed as the display is RGB while the print is CMYK, but I am concerned about the difference after exporting. Thank you!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Monika Gause

Don't set it to "Emulate Illustrator 6". That is asking for trouble.

 

It has to be set up for your needs. So the color profile has to match what you need for printing.Talk to your printing service about color profiles.

 

And then turn the Policies on. For RGB it's most of the time best to Keep profiles. For CMYK Keep numbers (secure workflow). And then of course turn on the warnings (all the "Ask" checkboxes).

 

When viewing the PDF in Acrobat again set up color management (set it up the same as Illustrator). You can synchronize color management settings with Bridge.

 

There are trainings and books available on  color management. Please learn it, it won't go away. In case you can read German, there is a good, free book available. For other languages you most probably have to invest some money in learning. The official documentation is just scratching the surface.

1 reply

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 2, 2021

What do you know about color management?

How is color management set up in Illustrator?

V
Valentina5EC7Author
Participant
June 2, 2021

I am not sure if this is it, but I had my color settings set to ''Custom'', I have changed it now to Emulate and when I exported the PDF file the colours matched what was Illustrator showing when set to Custom color setting, however when I switched to Emulate the colours in Illustrator got very bright. So the problem is still that Illustrator displays different colours to when the file is exported in PDF. Do you think restarting the settings to factory settings may help? I have never had this problem happen and I've been doing the same thing (exporting in PDF) for over a year. I have also tried to display Overprint Overview but it did not help.

 

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 2, 2021

Don't set it to "Emulate Illustrator 6". That is asking for trouble.

 

It has to be set up for your needs. So the color profile has to match what you need for printing.Talk to your printing service about color profiles.

 

And then turn the Policies on. For RGB it's most of the time best to Keep profiles. For CMYK Keep numbers (secure workflow). And then of course turn on the warnings (all the "Ask" checkboxes).

 

When viewing the PDF in Acrobat again set up color management (set it up the same as Illustrator). You can synchronize color management settings with Bridge.

 

There are trainings and books available on  color management. Please learn it, it won't go away. In case you can read German, there is a good, free book available. For other languages you most probably have to invest some money in learning. The official documentation is just scratching the surface.

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