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A
Anonymous
February 22, 2019
Answered

Does Acrobat Reader support color management systems?

  • February 22, 2019
  • 4 replies
  • 13954 views

Adobe products like Illustrator and Photoshop support color management systems.

But the Acrobat reader does not seem to support it, right?

I'm wondering if there is any support plan.

I do not want to hear the frustrating answer to using Acrobat Pro.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Dov Isaacs

    I did a test. Opened a PDF file saved from Photoshop which has the sRGB profile name saved in the metadata (don't know if the actual profile is embedded or not). Opened side by side, one window with Acrobat Reader, next to another window with Acrobat Pro. And the Acrobat Reader looks very different in they grays than the Acrobat Pro. So I assume that Acrobat Reader is not color managed.


    Adobe Acrobat Reader indeed supports color management. If the documents look different, it is because the color preferences and/or viewing mode (such as overprint preview) are set differently.

     

    (Also, FWIW, you should not try to have parallel installations of Reader and Acrobat or multiple versions of same of different releases on a single system. It is a recipe for “issues.”)

     

    4 replies

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    March 26, 2020

    I can confirm that the "bridge" file has a profile on the image (Adobe RGB). I can confirm also that the "Photoshop" file has NO profile on the image. So, I don't know why you get a file without the profile, but from that point on the display is not surprising.

    J
    jjohanson
    Known Participant
    March 27, 2020

    Thanks again for the feedback!

     

    The PDF file created in Photoshop: When I look at this PDF file in Bridge, I see in Metadata under "Color Profile" that "Adobe RGB (1998)" is listed. Also, when opening this file in Photoshop, the file seems to be tagged with an "Adobe RGB (1998) Document Profile.

     

    In any case both files render colors OK in both Bridge and in Photoshop while both files have oversaturated colors in Acrobat Reader DC. So it looks like that even if a PDF has an embedded color profile, Acrobat Reader DC gets the colors wrong (color management in general seems to be working fine on my system for color managed applications).

     

    In my Acrobat Read DC (Version 20.006.20034), under Edit | Preferences...  I can not see "Color management" as should be there according to an earlier post in this thread...

     

    My system details:
    - Adobe Acrobat Reader DC - 2020, Version 20.006.20034
    - 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)

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    March 27, 2020

    I've looked at the internals of the Photoshop PDF in detail. I can report that the image indeed has no profile, as I said. HOWEVER, the PDF uses something called "DefaultRGB" to set a profile which should apply to the image. If Reader is ignoring that, then you indeed have a Reader bug. 

    Per Berntsen
    Community Expert
    Per BerntsenCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 20, 2019

    I used Acrobat Reader 11 (I think) for years on Window 7, and it always displayed correct colors on my wide gamut monitor. (an Eizo CS 240 calibrated with an i1Pro, using Color Navigator)

    I now have a new Windows 10 computer, and Reader DC displays images over saturated. The images have an embedded profile (sRGB), and they originate from an InDesign document, exported as an interactive PDF. Seems like a bug to me.

     

    So I tried to open the PDF in Acrobat Pro DC, and images were still over saturated.

    I then went to Preferences > Color management, and it turned out that the RGB working space was set to the monitor profile by default. I'm not really familiar with Acrobat Pro, (I rarely use it, and only to edit text), but I would have thought that having the monitor profile as a working space by default would be a serious bug in any color managed application.

    I changed the working space to Adobe RGB, and the images displayed correctly.

     

     

    J
    jjohanson
    Known Participant
    March 26, 2020

    Hi,

     

    I am having a similar problem, see thread here:

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader/problem-with-color-management-wide-gamut-monitor/m-p/10982293 

     

    However, in my Acrobat Read DC (Version 20.006.20034), under Edit  |  Preferences...I can not see "Color management". What can be the problem here?

    Also, I can I be sure that others using Acrobat Read DC will have the correct setting and be able to see correct colors when viewing my PDFs?

     

    Thanks, any input greatly appreciated.

     

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    March 26, 2020

    The chances are, the PDF files do not contain a colour profile. If they do not, then the colour is defined to mean "device colour". This will, by design, mean different things on different devices, and will typically mean wide gamut displays are oversaturated.

     

    If you see this it should ring alarm bells. Why don't your PDFs have profiles? How do you make them? And if you have no way to check whether there is a profile, please share a PDF so others might check.

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    February 22, 2019

    Acrobat Reader, Acrobat, and any other good PDF viewer, will use the ICC profiles in a PDF file, and convert to the monitor profile for on screen display. There are no settings in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to control this, it just happens.

    If it DOESN'T happen we need to look at three things.

    (1) What was the original colour source and how did you verify it?

    (2) How is the PDF is made. Does it include an ICC profile?

    (3) What is the monitor profile in the system?

    T
    Tobias5FAE
    Participating Frequently
    January 19, 2022
    quote

    Acrobat Reader, Acrobat, and any other good PDF viewer, will use the ICC profiles in a PDF file, and convert to the monitor profile for on screen display. There are no settings in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to control this, it just happens.

     

    If it DOESN'T happen we need to look at three things.

    (1) What was the original colour source and how did you verify it?

    (2) How is the PDF is made. Does it include an ICC profile?

    (3) What is the monitor profile in the system?


    By @Test Screen Name

    Can some Admin please unflag the "1 right answer" state of this post?

    There is a bug in colour managment of Acrobat DC on Windows machines with calibrated monitors which use not the windows icc profile for these monitors.

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      February 22, 2019

      No, there is no support. Reader fully supports colour managed display and printing? Do you mean you want to use a different CMS?

      A
      Anonymous
      February 22, 2019

      I am using the adobe rgb monitor. The colors of PDF files created with S-RGB in Acrobat Reader appear in the wrong color.

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