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Question

Problem with Color Management (wide gamut monitor)

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
March 14, 2020
8 replies
9623 views

When viewing PDF documents containing images on my wide gamut monitor, images have oversaturated colors. They look identical to the way non-color managed Windows applications display the same images (like the (current) Edge browser and the Photos app).

The same PDFs looks OK when opened in Photoshop (or in the Chrome browser).

I have used the following ways to create the PDFs used for testing:

1) Photoshop

- Open a JPEG color image (sRGB or AdobeRGB) in Photoshop
- In Photoshop: File -> Save As... -> Save as type: Photoshop PDF

1) Bridge

- Go to the Output module
- Drag a single image on to the page
- Export to PDF

=> Using: Adobe Acrobat Reader DC - 2020, Version 20.006.20034

My system details:

- Adobe Photoshop Version: Adobe Photoshop 2020 Version: 21.1.0 20200212.r.106 2020/02/12: 4dd027efb58 x64
- Bridge Version: Adobe Bridge 2020: 10.0.3.138 x64
- Adobe Camera Raw Version: 12.2.0.386
- Monitor: Eizo CG2730 (calibrated regularly with Xrite i1 Display)
- Windows 10 Pro x64 version: 1909 - Os build 18363.720
- Graphics driver: Driver version: 442.19 (GeForce GTX 1060 3GB)

This topic has been closed for replies.

A

anameplease

Known Participant

i confirm having the same problem since some weeks, acrobat seemingly not recognizing cms or the monitor profile.

i am on eizo cg2700s, color navigator 7, windows 11, nvidia rtx2060. When i set the monitor to sRGB it displays ok. Before i had windows 10, color navigator 6, eizo cg243w, no problems for a long time, although i remember it happened before. i am wondering how this could happen to a company which deals with colors and design software......problem seems to linger around for years...

A

anameplease

Known Participant

Hello,

i contacted adobe chat support. Removing acrobat with adobe acrobat cleanup tool and reinstalling from downloaded installer zip solved the problem for me for now.

A

anameplease

Known Participant

sorry false hope, after restart bad profile behaviour was back. ...

S

studio_us

Participant

Has anyone found a work-around for this? It's awful, clients are telling me that I am not using their brand colors colors... I am, its just showing up WAY TOO SATURATED in Adobe Acrobat.

B

Bovenwijs

Participant

Strange thing. I had the same problem. I did uninstall Adobe Acrobat Pro (32-bits) and installed Acrobat afterwards (64-bits). Colours were fine so I was delighted. Sadly, next time I started the program, the colours were oversaturated again. Because all other Adobe programs, including Bridge were teh color settings were synchronized (Europe Web/Internet 2) show the pdf (PDF/X-1a:2001) like you would expect and do so on both EIZO monitors, the problem can only be traced to Acrobat Pro.

One more thing. It seems not all computers have the same problem at the same time. By reading this and other threads I think the problem has been around for many months now. Hope Adobe finds a solution soon, because Acrobat is the tool for proofing my documents.

X

xpunctum

Participant

I use Indesign to make PDF. But I have the same problem as you. Whatever I do, if I export my PDF as sRGB it always Displays oversaturated colors. Even Chrome shows correct colors bu AcrobatDC can't. My solution is: When I export my document I choose "No color conversion" and "Don't include profiles". Then my document preview is correct.

Z

ZBalling

Inspiring

You do understand that even Desktop in windows is not color managed, right? Just saying. Also, I believe Adobe Acrobat only support coverting to DCI-p3 (when in HDR) and sRGB gamuts, not some 3d LUT for your monitor, dunno. Of course Windows gives all APIs for that, but even here in chrome it became broken not so long ago.

J

jjohansonAuthor

Known Participant

I have done some more systematic testing. There seems to be a color management problem/error in the current Windows version of Acrobat Reader DC?

Procedure
---------
This time I have made two test images:

- image-AdobeRGB.jpg - a JPEG image file with an Adobe RGB (1998) embedded color profile
- image-sRGB.jpg - a JPEG image file with a sRGB IEC61966-2.1 embedded color profile

For each image I have generated a PDF document using both Bridge and Photoshop. This results in 4 PDF files:

- image-AdobeRGB-BRIDGE.pdf     - image-AdobeRGB.jpg has been used in the Output module of Bridge
- image-AdobeRGB-PHOTOSHOP.pdf - image-AdobeRGB.jpg has been used in Photoshop ("Save As": Photoshop PDF)
- image-sRGB-BRIDGE.pdf         - image-sRGB.jpg has been used in the Output module of Bridge
- image-sRGB-PHOTOSHOP.pdf      - image-sRGB.jpg has been used in Photoshop ("Save As": Photoshop PDF)

Each of the 4 PDFs has been opened in three applications:

- Bridge (10.0.3.138 x64)
- Photoshop (21.1.1 20200312.r.121 2020/03/12: c839971b587 x64)
- Adobe Acrobat Read DC (20.006.20042)

The process is shown in the attached two diagrams:

- diagram-AdobeRGB.pdf
- diagram-sRGB.pdf

FINDINGS
--------
This has produced 12 sets of findings (4 PDFs times 3 apps).
A summary:

1) Previews in Bridge and Photoshops looks OK for all 4 PDFs.
2) With two exceptions (see diagrams and *) Bridge and Photoshop indicates that the correct color profile is present.
3) For all 4 PDFs Acrobat Read DC shows identical and wrong (oversaturated) colors.

*) Bridge shows "Untagged" for the PDFs generated by Bridge. However, according to this:
- https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader/does-acrobat-reader-support-color-management-systems/m-p/11006133?page=1#M64420
at least the the image in the Adobe RGB (1998) version of the PDF seems to have the correct profile.

Speculation
-----------
Since Acrobat Reader DC (ARDC) shows identical previews for all four PDFs (regardless of the image color profile used that also seems to be present in the PDF files), it seems reasonable to assume that ARDC takes the input profile into account (the profile(s) embedded in the PDFs). However, it seems that the output profile (in this case the profile generated while calibrating my Eizo wide gamut monitor) is not taken into account. This behavior mimics the behavior of some native Windows applications like the Edge browser and the Photos app (images with different embedded profiles are rendered identically, but with oversaturated colors on my monitor). It is interesting to note that both the Adobe RGB (1998) files and the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 files preview identically (to my eye) in both Acrobat Reader DC, the Edge browser (non-chromium) and the Windows Photos app. When using "standard" gamut monitors it will often be difficult to see that the colors actually are not correct.

Test files for download
-----------------------
All files can be downloaded here:

- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/image-AdobeRGB.jpg
- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/image-AdobeRGB-BRIDGE.pdf
- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/image-AdobeRGB-PHOTOSHOP.pdf

- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/image-sRGB.jpg
- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/image-sRGB-BRIDGE.pdf
- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/image-sRGB-PHOTOSHOP.pdf

- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/diagram-AdobeRGB.pdf
- http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/diagram-sRGB.pdf

My system details:
- Adobe Acrobat Reader DC - 2020, Version 20.006.20042
- Adobe Photoshop Version: 21.1.1 20200312.r.121 2020/03/12: c839971b587 x64
- Bridge Version: Adobe Bridge 2020: 10.0.3.138 x64
- Adobe Camera Raw Version: 12.2.0.386
- Monitor: Eizo CG2730 (calibrated regularly with Xrite i1 Display)
- Windows 10 Pro x64 version: 1909 - Os build 18363.752
- Graphics driver: Driver version: 442.19 (GeForce GTX 1060 3GB)

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

Please report this as a bug.

J

jjohansonAuthor

Known Participant

OK, but how do I do that?

J

jjohansonAuthor

Known Participant

Here are two PDFs used during my testing, one generated in Bridge and the other generated in Photoshop:

http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/2O4A1803-1c3-flatten-BRIDGE.pdf

http://jjohanson-test.com/acrobat-readerdc/2O4A1803-1c3-flatten-PHOTOSHOP.pdf

BTW: when opening the PDF generated by Bridge in Photoshop, I can see that in the initial "Import PDF" dialog that under "Mode" then "Adobe RGB (1998)" is selected. This corresponds to the embedded profile of the PSD file that was used to generate the PDF.

J

jjohansonAuthor

Known Participant

Another quick update:

I have now also tried opening a number of photo related PDFs (no made by me) in Acrobat Read DC, Bridge and Photoshop. The trend is the same: Acrobat Reader DC renders the PDFs with oversaturated colors (as if not having a proper color management), while the previews in Bride look normal.

J

jjohansonAuthor

Known Participant

Just a quick update:

- When using Bridge to create the PDFs, I have made sure that "Preserve Embedded Color Profile" is turned on in Edit -> Preferences -> Output.

As mentioned above, other applications seems to render the PDFs OK (the colors are correct), it is only when using Acrobat Reader DC that I see oversaturated colors. Could this be due to a bug/error in the latest Reader DC?

J

jjohansonAuthor

Known Participant

I forgot to mention above that the generated PDFs also look OK in Bridge (thumbnails and previews).

Here is an illustration of the problem (screendumps). To the left is how Acrobar Read DC renders one of my test PDFs. To the right is the (correct) rendering in Photoshop. Notice how Acrobat Reader DC saturates colors, in this case especially reds:

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

What Save settings do you use in Photoshop for profile embedding?

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