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Participant
June 25, 2025
Question

Trouble with Adobe PDF Color Profiles / Saving Results

  • June 25, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 221 views

Hi all, 

For years until very recently, our agency's go-to method for sharing for-print proofs for on-screen viewing has been to work within a CMYK document setup, but save/export as an Adobe PDF with the color output converted to destination -> Working RGB profile. 

This generally resulted in screen-accurate colors to those that would eventually be printed. Generally, all of our colors are assigned from a Pantone bridge palette. The resulting PDF could be compared over the working file on the same screen, and colors would be very accurate between the two. 

Begining some time very recently, this is no longer the case. We're seeing very different resulting colors from the saved PDF vs the working file in Illustrator. There seems to be no difference between leaving the color profile as CMYK, and of course CMYK colors viewed in an RGB/Web browser are never accurate.

Going through my normal export method:
CMYK Color Mode Document: Save As -> Adobe PDF -> (General) Optimize for Fast Web View ->(Output) Convert to Destination-> Working RGB-> Include Destination Profiles

Attached screenshots are working file on the left, PDF on the right. The vibrance, and especially the blue tones, are very different, especially noticable with larger coverage areas. 

I would really appreciate any and all insight on what may have changed, and how best to adjust so that PDFs save with on-screen colors similar to the working file. 

Thanks!

2 replies

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 5, 2025

Did you check your color settings recently? Has anything been changed there?

How about the setup in Acrobat? Are you even using Acrobat for viewing the PDF?

creative explorer
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 5, 2025

@Jesse33325928lj9g if I can recall my days working in pre-press, and when we had to provide colour proofs through the matchprint to the colour lasers or large format printers, we had to calibrate every hour on the hour for colour accuracy. It was like clockwork. Pain in the butt, but our company was known for accuracy colour. 

With the colour calibration, we were supplied with the equipment. We had at the time, and Epson for the large format and the colour laser I can't remember—for some strange reason, a part of me thinks it was Kodak color calibration. It was black and yellow holder. I just can't exactly remember... maybe something like this. It's been so long ago. 



 

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