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kate5E92
kate5E92
Participant
September 29, 2020
Answered

Saving Print artwork as PDF in Illustrator makes it darker/duller

  • September 29, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 599 views

I am working on a print document in Illustrator. 

The document is set as CMYK. 

When I save the PDF, I choose the Adobe PDF preset as "High Quality Print". I also choose to add all the printer marks, and then color conversion is set as "no conversion". 

Yet, when I veiw the PDF in Preview on my Mac, it's much darker than in Illustrator. Maybe it's because I'm viewing the PDF in Preview rather in Acrobat?

Am I missing something? I've tried to find resources, without luck, so I thought I'd try here. 

Thanks for any hints/tips/pointers.

Kate 🙂

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer kate5E92

Thanks Michele. 

I finally downloaded Acrobat and it seems to be okay there, so I'm hoping this is right when it goes to print 😉

3 replies

michelew83603738
Community Expert
michelew83603738Community Expert
Community Expert
September 29, 2020

How does it actually look in Acrobat?

kate5E92
kate5E92AuthorCorrect answer
Participant
September 30, 2020

Thanks Michele. 

I finally downloaded Acrobat and it seems to be okay there, so I'm hoping this is right when it goes to print 😉

    KShinabery212
    Community Expert
    KShinabery212Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 29, 2020

    What are you trying to design?

    If it is a graphic... I would finish it in Illustrator and then pop it into Photoshop and then save it as a PDF.  I never go wrong doing that.

     

    If it is a layout, then I have other ideas.

    Let's connect on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kshinabery/
      kate5E92
      kate5E92Author
      Participant
      September 30, 2020

      It is a graphic on a print doc. I never knew this was an option, so thanks for that! 😉

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 30, 2020

      It's not really an option.

       

      It is a good idea for some specific artworks that would cause problems in prepress (such as extensive use of bristle brushes or blending modes that only work well in RGB space). But it is downright destructive to all of the "typical" vector artwork with its fine lines and shapes that need to be sharp in order to be legible. Converting those to pixels when opening in Photoshop will take away all the features that made you create this as a vector artwork in the beginning.

       

      When all you have is issues with color then your only option is to fix your color management. And of course use a decent PDF viewer (which Preview is not).

      Ton Frederiks
      Community Expert
      Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 29, 2020

      Preview is not a very reliable PDF viewer.

      How does it look in Acrobat?

        kate5E92
        kate5E92Author
        Participant
        September 30, 2020

        I couldn't get Acrobat on my computer (until I had freed up some space). Now that I've checked, it looks fine in Acrobat... so fingers crossed. EEK 🙂

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