PNG Color Shift When Embedding in Illustrator – Adobe RGB Profiles Now Causing Issues

Hello @OMNiArt, @Ton Frederiks,

Thanks for sharing the details. Kindly allow me some time to check this with the team. Please feel free to reach out if you have more questions. We'd be happy to help.

Anubhav

Hello @OMNiArt,

Thanks for sharing the details. Kindly allow me some time to check this with the team.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Anubhav

I downgraded to correct issue. I haven't had a change to upgrade again and check if it works. This happened on my coworkers computer as well. It didn't matter how I color mangaged the Illustrator document, all PNGs with ADOBE RGB color profile embedded shifted in color not matter what.

We have so many preview issues across Adobe where our Adobe RGB PNGs shift in color. We've been beating our heads on it for the last couple years. The work around was just being sure the PNG wasn't "Untagged" and had a RGB color profile attached, any profile, didn't matter, it would stop the color shift (outside Preview) 99% of the time. In Preview mode, such as Export As, it would shift in color but ultimately save correctly.

Here's the layman's version of what we've been experiencing, wrote original post date:

We use transparent PNGs across our entire product catalog — thousands of images, used minute-to-minute in our daily processes. About two years ago, we started noticing radical, random color shifts from app to app. After digging in, we discovered that "Untagged PNGs" — those without an embedded RGB color profile — were the main culprit.

But here's the weird part: not all untagged PNGs shifted color. The most noticeable and frequent shifts occurred in images dominated by blue, purple, and gray tones. And, perhaps worst of all, models’ faces started appearing gaunt, gray, and ghoulish — even though they looked healthy in the source files.

We traced the problem back to how PNGs were being saved. Using “Save” or “Save As” in Photoshop strips the embedded RGB color profile from PNGs. This likely started when Adobe introduced “Export As” — based on what I found during research last year (though I could be wrong). Eventually, we realized that saving every transparent PNG via “Export As” preserved the color profile and stopped the shifting.

And here's what we found: it didn’t matter which profile — sRGB (for web) or Adobe RGB (for print) — as long as the PNG had an embedded profile, the color was consistent across apps, artboards, and saves. Even if the preview in the “Export As” window looked off, the actual file usage remained color-stable as long as the profile was embedded.

That discovery solved a huge, ongoing issue that had caused over a year of production headaches as we were building a library of thousands of images. Finally — problem solved.

Fast forward to now: we’ve discovered a new major issue in Illustrator 29.8.1.

Linked PNGs (with embedded profiles) now radically shift color when embedded. They look fine when linked, and they look fine in Photoshop. But the moment you embed them — bam, back to the ghoul-faced models. I’ve gone through every recommended troubleshooting step: toggling color management settings, testing different workflows — nothing fixes it. And now, if RGB color management is turned off entirely, they import already shifted.

Here’s the key update: PNGs with embedded sRGB profiles are embedding correctly — no color shift. But PNGs with embedded Adobe RGB profiles are now shifting color upon embed. That’s the opposite of what we were dealing with before.

This started happening just yesterday to our knowledge. We were on Illustrator version 29.8.1 (updated on 8/8, I believe) when we noticed it. I’ve now installed the 9/12 update for 29.8.1 — issue still persists. I even downgraded to 29.7.1 — still broken.

Even stranger: the previously problematic untagged PNGs now embed and display correctly without color shift, per our testing.

I don’t know how Adobe can’t get this right. Transparent PNGs are essential for countless workflows. Windows, Chrome, and nearly every image viewer handles them consistently — why has Adobe struggled so much with PNG color profiles over the last few years?

Last year alone, this color profile chaos cost us an estimated 300–400 hours of rework as we rebuilt our product image database. At the time, we didn’t fully understand what was happening — especially since not all untagged PNGs had issues. In some cases, we’d “fix” the color shift by blindly adjusting the source PSDs to compensate for how wrong they looked in Illustrator. We'd tweak, save, check, and repeat — over and over — until it looked right.

It was exhausting. And now it’s back — but in a new form.

We don’t use linked files in Illustrator. We embed everything. That’s our workflow. And I’m not about to go back through thousands of PNGs and start stripping RGB profiles just to workaround this new Illustrator bug — especially since that exact thing caused so many issues elsewhere.

The only fix that has worked so far? Downgrading to Illustrator 29.5.1. On that version, PNGs with embedded profiles — including Adobe RGB — embed without color shift.

But obviously, that’s not a long-term solution.

We need Adobe to fix this — across the suite — once and for all. This PNG color profile problem is getting worse, not better. These malfunctions are costing us time, money, and serious frustration. And it doesn’t have to be this way. PNGs used to preview and render correctly — for years. It just worked.

It’s time for it to work again. Thank you!

I’m on an old version to repair the situation, so it won’t act like it does in the new version. I think there’s been sufficient evidence. 

In Adobe 29.5 - I import a PNG w/Adobe RGB color profile and get an error dialog:

I can choose either and the photo will look correct.

Then, I go to EMBED the photo and the same dialog comes up. If I choose “Use the embedded profile” it shows correctly:
 

If I choose “Discard the embedded profile.” The color shifts to “ghostly face”: