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silvial34235166
Participating Frequently
July 15, 2019
Question

Photoshop and Acrobat are displaying the color differently!

  • July 15, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 4336 views

A little info on my setup...

I'm using a Mac with High Sierra. All my adobe products have the "North America General Purpose 2" Color Management setting.I created a PDF from sRGB tiffs using the Photoshop "PDF Presentation" automation. Here are my Photoshop Color Settings and PDF creation settings:

     *didn't include all pages of the save adobe PDF dialog cause it didn't seem necessary but let me know if there are crucial color settings on those pages and i'll share a screenshot

I then opened that PDF in Acrobat and the color is different. Below is a side-by-side example. The image on the left (tiff opened in photoshop) doesn't have nearly as much red as the image on the right (pdf opened in acrobat). You can really tell in their skin. Exactly color is crucial in my industry. What's going on? All images are sRGB. Is there a setting i'm missing?

Another whacky thing I've noticed that may provide another clue is that when I open the image in Preview the color in the Preview image matches the color in tiff opened in Photoshop:

Wow, does that mean? That Preview does a better job of managing color than Acrobat? Or am I missing some kind of color setting in Acrobat that Preview's default accounts for?

Adobe Acrobat is the standard in my industry for image review. I need to know that color will be managed consistently across programs.

Any ideas?

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
July 15, 2019

Also: try opening the PDF back up in Photoshop. Which does it match now?

S
silvial34235166Author
Participating Frequently
July 15, 2019

if i open up the pdf in photoshop it matches the desired color that i was seeing when i opened the tif in photoshop so def an adobe acrobat color management issue

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
July 16, 2019

See above. It is not an Acrobat color management issue. It is preference settings for Overprint Preview, thus showing a CMYK rendition of your sRGB with obviously a more restricted gamut!

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
July 15, 2019

What version of Acrobat are you using? There were some color inconsistencies in Acrobat 11 and earlier on MacOS but those were fixed for the next releases.

In Acrobat, if you invoke the Output Preview tool and select Object Inspector? What information do you see with regards to the image. Do they match the color space you are using in Photoshop?

Even better, can you post the image and resultant PDF files for us to examine?

By the way, in the screen shot of color settings in Photoshop, I noticed that the color settings are not synchronized between your applications. Unless you do this, you might be using different color management settings in different Adobe applications. That might account for a discrepancy. Color management settings are synchronized in the Adobe Bridge application.

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    S
    silvial34235166Author
    Participating Frequently
    July 15, 2019

    Thanks for the quick reply! Long time listener, first time poster. So excited that we're gonna figure this together. I've answered your questions:

    What version of Acrobat are you using? There were some color inconsistencies in Acrobat 11 and earlier on MacOS but those were fixed for the next releases. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Version 2019.012.20034

    In Acrobat, if you invoke the Output Preview tool and select Object Inspector? What information do you see with regards to the image. Do they match the color space you are using in Photoshop? Woah, Dov! You cracked it! I just updated the Simulation Profile to sRGB and it's all good now!!

    It says CMYK swopv2 under simulation profile. But Preferences->Color Management says my working space for RGB is "sRGB". What exactly is the difference btw a Working Profile and  a Simulation Profile? And why is there no mention of Simulation Profile in Preferences?

    Even better, can you post the image and resultant PDF files for us to examine? I don't think this is necessary as you figured it out with the simulation profile question!

    By the way, in the screen shot of color settings in Photoshop, I noticed that the color settings are not synchronized between your applications. Unless you do this, you might be using different color management settings in different Adobe applications. That might account for a discrepancy. Color management settings are synchronized in the Adobe Bridge application. Hmm I can try to synchronize them again, but I followed the steps under "Synchronize color settings across Adobe applications" here:

    https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/keeping-colors-consistent.html#synchronize_color_settings_across_adobe_applications

    Thanks so much for your help!!

    Dov Isaacs
    Dov Isaacs
    Legend
    July 16, 2019

    I think I see the real problem. It would appear that you have Overprint Preview on via one of several settings. It is obviously checked on in the Output Preview (by the way, you didn't show me the Object Inspector pane, just the separations – the Object Inspector would have shown the color space and rendering intent for the image). You may also have set it to on via the Preferences - Page Display setting.

    When Overprint Preview is on, what is displayed is the CMYK version of your content. That accounts for the difference you see in Acrobat. By changing the simulation profile to sRGB, you effectively finessed that conversion to CMYK. If you had Overprint Preview off in Acrobat, your colors would have matched those in Photoshop. Conversely, if in Photoshop, you had  View=>Proof Colors enabled, you would have Photoshop yielding the same screen display as you had in Acrobat with Overprint Preview.

    Clear as mud yet? 

              - Dov

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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