Color issues in Mountain Lion with Acrobat Pro

[twsphoto]

I'm not sure I'm in the right forum, but here it goes.

Since upgrading my OS to Mountain Lion, I've noticed  when viewing PDFs output from InDesign 5.5 that once in Acrobat Pro the colors look muted and inaccurate.  I never saw this in Snow Leopard, hence my posting.  Color in InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop CS5.5 seem just fine, it's only when a PDF is viewed in Acrobat that I see this muted color issue. 

What I'm concerned with is are these problems when viewing only, or is the PDF color range itself screwed up?  I do prepress work and am using an Eizo CG241 display, CS5.5 and Acrobat Pro 10.1.4.

Thanks!

[twsphoto]

Yeah, I started this thread September 1, 2012.  Sheesh, you'd think we'd see something by now.

Because this is a viewing issue and not a coding issue, I'm going to still wait instead of loading Colorfaker.  I appreciate your input and kudos for that app, but just don't want to load something when I shouldn't have to.  I may change my mind on that opinion at some point!!

[Paul Sherfield]

Going to a Adobe function today so will bring this up.   I have been thinking more re this and increasingly think it is an Adobe issue. Acrobat 9 Pro works correctly with OS 10.8. Acrobat 10/11 Pro do not.  So one would think that the anwser for Adobe would be to check to difference in the colour managment handling between 9 and 10/11. Then issue an update/back date re colour to how 9 handled colour managment.  It been an very long time so far and this is area mission critical to many CS users who need and expect correct colour across all CS software via Bridge.

[twsphoto]

I agree, but there is a possibility that Apple changed something that mucked up the waters, too.  Hard to tell, but your plan is a good one, speak directly to the people who made the software.  Hopefully somebody will solve this, as though it seems only a viewing issue, it should work, that's what we pay for.

[JGoahead]

Today was update to Adobe Acrobat X 10.1.6... Nothing has changed... Acrobat X still is not for pro work. Displayed colours are not proper. This is a joke...

[twsphoto]

Yeah, you got that right.  And so far no fix, nor is there any word about it.  Colorfaker is still a possibility, but we shouldn't have to use that to fix a pro app such as this.  Especially in a PDF workflow world.  What a mess.  Just glad Mac OS>Preview sees the right colors, or at least closer than Acrobat does.

[ShashtinS]

I am using InDesign (CS6) with Lion. My pdf file looks fine in Acrobat, but the job came back from the professional printer extremely flat/dull. I've used the printer many times, and this has not happened before. If I preview the file in Acrobat using Advanced/Print Production/Flattener preview, it looks dull as it does when printed. The only difference in my process is that I have upgraded software to CS6 and Lion. Anyone know what is going on?

[twsphoto]

Are the colors in the doc CMYK process, or do you have Pantones, etc.?

This thread is regarding a viewing issue in Acrobat Pro 10.1.6 and Mountain Lion.  It seems Acrobat is defaulting to sRGB when viewing a PDF, and not using the calibrated display profile.  When I was in Snow Leopard, all was fine.  But now it's not, for any of us.  I've not had one single problem from this from my printer, all the file outputs look as they did when they were output in SLeopard.  As I said, it's a viewing issue, or is according to the Adobe guy who's somewhere on this thread.

How this translates to your issue, I don't know.  The one thing I'd recommend is going to Mountain Lion so you're in the latest OS for CS6.  I've read on some forums that CS6 likes the newest OS.  Not sure if that's true or not, but it might be a place to start.  Also, are your Color Settings synch'd throughout your CS Suite?

Are we having fun now!

[Paul Sherfield]

The bug is also in Acrobat Pro 11. Also I think it is using the display profile but the simulation profile and output intents in PDF X files are not working correctly?

[twsphoto]

In 11, too?  Ugh.  We need help.

[Norbert Heyl]

I have the same issue on my system: OS X 10.8.2 - Nec Lcd3090WQXi - Acrobat 10.1.6. Monitor is hardware calibrated and then profiled with i1Profiler.

Pdfs are previewing well in InDesign, photoshop and Apple Preview. Acrobat shows dull colors. I proofed a pdf (PDF X-3:2002) with EFI xPress on another computer system (OS X 10.7.5). The printed proof lies inside the tolerance of the Fogra standard (mesasued with spectro proofer). The proof shows exactly the same colors as in Indesign or Photoshop on the calibrated/profiled NEC monitor.

Preview in xPress and Acrobat 9 (on the computer with OS X 10.7.5) was also o.k - same colors ans the certified proof.

Please allow a personal remark: This is an unacceptable situation for professional software makers as Adobe and Apple! Even more so considering that Acrobat X and OS X 10.8 have been released so many months ago!

[twsphoto]

Personal remarks welcome, I hope Adobe is listening.  We're stuck in the muck with this situation, depending upon companies doing their jobs to make their products work so we can make a living with what we paid for.  Strange, this problem doesn't seem to be that insurmountable.  I'm not a programmer, but it still seems minor compared to other s/w problems that have been overcome over the years.  Maybe by the time Acrobat 18 comes along it'll be solved?  Sometimes, sarcasm helps.  At least it makes me feel better to write it!

[Sandeep_V_]

Hello!!!

Just wanted to keep everyone updated. We have found the root cause of this issue and have already started working towards the fix. If everything goes as planned, you're soon going to get a good news on this page.  We are considering this with utmost priority and will try to provide a fix in upcoming updates of Acrobat.

Stay connected !!!

~Sandeep V.

[twsphoto]

Good news would be good, thanks for keeping us in the loop!!

[Paul Sherfield]

Yes, very good news. Got a similar message @acrobat on Twitter after I sent a comment to them on this issue last week.

[IlaMos]

Nice, I hope everything will be fixed soon

[sbgraphic]

To let you know I have a similar issue mentioned on this thread and this one:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4816089

I am on osx 10.8.3, Mac Pro 3,1 calbrated with colornavigator (5000k, 2.2 Gamma, 80cd) Eizo CG241W, then i am using eciRGB_v2 Or ISOCoated_v2 as a general basis) I hope this fix will arrive soon.

Additionnal info: very annoying, on my system I often get a crash of Acrobat X during color separation preview output! does some has this too ?

Regards,

Eric S.

[Rick Meikle]

Thanks for getting back to us, Sandeep. I hope the fix will include the PDF viewer plugin for Safari (and other browsers). I'm sure your guys are on top of this, but I mention it just in case.

[ShashtinS]

Thanks twsphoto. After hours of trying to troubleshoot in CS6, I ended up saving my ID file down from CS6 to CS4 and flattening/exporting from there to pdf. That solved the problem. I'm happy the problem is solved, but very frustrated that i'ts not working correctly in CS6. Very problematic to not be able to have documents print correctly from CS6.

My color settings were synced. Seemed to be a problem with transparency flattening in CS6....

[twsphoto]

I've heard CS6 has some issues with something, it's tough to keep it all straight any more.  Solve one thing and two others pop up.  I suppose, in defense of Adobe and Apple, that with all the coding that's in this software it's remarkable it works as well as it does.  Still, this color/Acrobat thing is a stumper, and I hope Adobe is still aware of it.  I find Apple's simple Preview actually makes the PDFs look almost normal.  Free app, can't beat it in a pinch.

I'm just trusitng the actual ID to PDF color voodoo is fine, and it seems to be.  I have a printer I use for all of my files and they're pretty consistent.  The output of the same materials over the last three years looks just the same.  Lucky me on this one.

I wonder if Adobe will chime in now that there's activity in the thread?  I wish they would.

[twsphoto]

I know about Colorfaker, but I don't think I should have to add another application to solve what seems to be an Adobe issue, or at least accordiong to the Adobe guy who's posted in this thread.  Custom display profiles are where he thinks the problem lies, but so far no fix.  If Apple is at fault, then Adobe and Apple should duke it out until they figure it out.  The software always worked fine in Snow Leopard, but not now.  That it's simply a viewing issue is fine, I can output my PDFs from ID and know they're correct, and after seeing and comparing new output to previous output they are correct, but I would like to see accurate color when in Acrobat, it's what I paid to see.

I'd bet Adobe is indeed working on this, patience is a virtue well heeded for the time being.

[BrightBird]

Just wanted to confirm that this issue is active on Win 7 Pro as well. I don't believe it is an OSX issue. I will be uninstalling Acrobat X and re-installing Acrobat 9 until a fix appears. Thanks to the Adobe Engineer who is actively debugging this. Appreciate it.

[Guest]

For those like me who scroll to the bottom of the page to see if there is a solution. This already was mentioned above by others.

Workaround that works for me

A little Tool, that was specificly written for this bug.

https://github.com/iccir/ColorFaker

I only use this when softproofing in Acrobat and disable it right afterwards because of the side effects when converting to sRGB.

Enjoy softproofing again

JO

In OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, when a color or image lacks an embedded color profile, it is interpreted in the sRGB color space. Previously, the main display's color space was used.

As a result, color meter utilities will show values after an sRGB → Main Display conversion. While many meters offer a "Display in sRGB" feature, using it will result in a double conversion. This results in rounding errors or clipped values.

Color Faker replaces the Generic RGB and sRGB color profiles with the main display's profile. This allows "native values" in color meters to once again be the native values of the display.

As a side-effect, any "Convert to sRGB" or "Assign sRGB Profile" commands in applications will no longer work. You will still be able to manually assign the backup sRGB profile.

[Sandeep_V_]

For those who do not want to try this workaround, here is the good news - We're planning to release our Quarterly Update next week. http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb13-15.html

Stay connected!!!

[Paul Sherfield]

Hi Sandeep  Hopefully this is good news? Can you confirm the colour display issues will be fixed with this update?

[Sandeep_V_]

Yes. The upcoming update fixes this issue. We're hoping to hear the same from your side.

Be well.