Acrobat DC changes document colors on some PDFs - how can I fix this?

Report · May 15, 2020

I am running Acrobat Standard DC, fully updated. For SOME PDFs, Acrobat changes the colors on the screen. I've given two examples below - the one on left is Adobe and on right SumatraPDF - the one on the right is correct. I did not create either of these. For the household inventory document, it was created using InDesign CS6 (Macintosh) according to the imbedded document decription.

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This started about a year ago. I have researched this problem but have not found a solution. I've done a repair and then reinstall of DC. In Preferences/Accessibility Replace Document Colors is not checked. Below is a screen shot of my Color Management settings. I ahve not found a setting combination that changes anything.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Report · May 15, 2020

Hi,

Are you opening this files directly in Acrobat or is there an export/import step that is skipped before opening these PDFs directly in Acrobat?

I can think of the Accessibility Checker. Run a full report and then take note of the failed tests. Use these to customize a preflight profile using the Print Production Tool.

However, you've mentioned that these files were created in CS6. Were these files already exported to PDf from inDesign? If no, what is the original file format of those files? Are these jpegs that you're opening directly in Acrobat?

If yes, looking at the first slide in the Preferences, there is another setting "Convert to PDF".

Click on on that preference setting, then click once on the file type (in this example I assume is a .jpeg), then click on the "Edit settings..." button.

See slide below:

Select "Preserve embedded profiles" for both CMYK and Grayscale.

Report · May 18, 2020

Thank you for the response. I am not well-versed in desktop publishing so might not understand some things being asked/stated. To answer your questions:

I am opening the files directly in Adobe Acrobat Standard DC. The coreopsis flower example is actually a jpeg and the 'inventory' document example is a PDF. I did not create either of the files and so do not know the workflow used. Below is a screen shot of properties/description for the inventory pdf.

I noticed that when a document is the wrong color, the the colors change this way (correct color to wrong): GREEN to PURPLE; YELLOW to PINK; BLUE to GREEN. Grey and red change much less and can be recognized for what they should be.

I did the following to test where the problem lies. I opened the coreopsis flower jpeg with Acrobat DC - it was the wrong color - purple - as shown in previous post. I then saved it as a PDF with the settings you suggested, preserve CMYK and Grayscale. Then closed Acrobat and opened the PDF of the coreopsis - again, wrong color, as expected. Then I opened the coreopsis PDF with SumatraPDF - correct color! I open the PDF with Adobe Reader XI version 11.0.23 - correct color! That was a surprise since Reader incorrectly displays the Inventory document.

Then I tried everything but not using the 'preserve' setting - no change in results.

An odd thing is that when I am in the create PDF dialog in Acrobat DC, the coreopsis have the correct color! See screen shot.

I tried the accessibility checker but think my version of DC does not have it like that. Included screen shot of my version of Acrobat.

I checked the sysinfo under Help. The only weird thing I saw is that it said I was running Windows 8 but I am running 10. There were some other things that might be a problem or indicative but not sure.

Thanks.

inventory doc description.png

Report · May 19, 2020

Hi,
Thanks for reaching out to us. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
For investigating the issue please share one such sample PDF file.

Which machine configuration you are using?

Thanks,

Sweta Karn

Report · May 20, 2020

Hello Sweta -

Interestingly, there is no option to attach a PDF - only photos, video and code. However, you can download the inventory PDF here: http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/publications/inventory-the-household

If by machine configuration you mean operating system, I am running Windows 10 Pro. I previously posted the Acrobat version.

thank you.

Report · May 21, 2020

Hi,

Since you mentioned about having two different Acrobat Pro products installed in the same machine, I am wondering if this is what is creating the the inconsistent color rendering issue.

I can think of two ideas to try:

Manually re-apply this update for your Acrobat Pro XI : https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/ReleaseNotes/11/11.0.23.html#elevenzerozerotwenty...
And switch your Adobe Acrobat Standard DC to run in program compatibility mode for Windows 8.

Conversely, you can try running Acrobat Pro XI to run in compatibility mode for Windows 7 or 8 and test, and then leave Acrobat Standard as is but make it the default PDF handler/viewer in your MS Windows 10.

Report · May 23, 2020

Thank you, ls_rbls but:

- I am not running 2 versions of Acrobat, and not running Pro. I am running DC (which I think is the same as 2015) and have already fully uninstalled and reinstalled the product. And then checked for updates. I included version in this thread earlier.

- I was previously running under Win 10 with no problems so unlikely to be compatibility problem. None-the-less, tried Win 7 and 8 - problem did not resolve.

Please take a look at the second screen capture in my previous post - seems to indcate that some setting applied by Acrobat when file is fully open is the problem - the thumbnail displays correctly.

Report · May 23, 2020

Yes, my mistake I missed the part that you said Adobe Reader.

But that being the case, would it be convenient to update Reader to the same version of the Acrobat Pro that you have?

I've read before that having mismatching versions of Acrobat product in the same computer may involve additional installtion repairs.

Also, I am trying to find a thread where a student was having a similar issue like yours.

The problem is in a setting, and a compatibility issue on the how the original source file was created with CS6 on a mac computer using a mac version of MS Word.

I will post back with that answer and see if it helps you.

Report · May 23, 2020

Here are two of the recent threads with interesting findings :

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/pdf-to-word-problems-with-images/m-p/11136536?page=1#M256946

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/redact-tool-applies-to-all-pages-i-just-want-to-use-it-on-the...

The first link deals with an issue with MS Word and the second one with annotations.

What I think happened (just my opinion) was that, opening a document directly in your Acrobat DC, like the one you've identified created with CS6 on a mac, is somehow layering objects incorrectly.

If my guesswork is correct, when you open that document in Acrobat and right-click on any area, select "Edit Text & Images" you'll notice how everything is layered in the document.

Right-Click once more on the image that has the incorrect color, and this time select from the context menu "Arrange" --->>> "Bring to Front" or "Bring Forward".

Conversely, if when you try to right-click on that image you see that the entire page becomes dark with the selection , select from the context menu "Arrange" -->> send that layer back or send backward.

You can also delete that entire empty image frame is that is the case, as long as it doesn't contain important text and such.

Report · May 26, 2020

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

Can you try installing free Adobe Reader and check if the same issue is happening with Adobe Reader as well?

Thanks,

Sweta Karn

Report · May 26, 2020

This is a rather long discussion and I may have missed some of it. You seem to be using only old and obsolete software versions, so far as I can see. Here is a recent version of Acrobat Reader: