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Participant
March 10, 2020
Question

Adobe Illustrator Over Saturating / Altering Colors

  • March 10, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 11528 views

I am currently working in Adobe Illustrator 2020, but this has happened to me since at least 2018-2019:

I will create an RGB document, create my RGB swatches (the brand colors I use are unsaturated pastel colors) and after working with the file for a while (dragging screenshots in, playing with text layout, etc...) My unsaturated pastel colors will randomly change to a hypersaturated brighter more vibrant color. It really destroys my productivity since I end up having to go back and adjust all colors before export. I never see the actual change occur, its almost as if it happens when I have the window hidden and am looking at something else. The only thing I can image that could be causing this is when I drag in screenshots since they are foreign to the document. I've attached screenshots of what the color starts as, and what it consistently changes to in all my documents.

 

 

3 replies

Participant
February 12, 2025

Hi I had this issue and fixed it by changing my Document Colour Mode to RGB. Hope this helps!

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 20, 2020

Can you check if there is a difference between your Edit > Color Settings RGB and your Document Color Profile (at the bottom of your doc window)?

gooz.gooz
Participating Frequently
July 21, 2020

I've been having the same issue. In Illustrator my colors are oversaturated. I have tried to reinstall the app twice and the problem persists. The app color profile matches the documents profile. So I have no idea whats causing this.
Also, when I copy an object from Illustrator and paste it on Photoshop, the color code of this object changes, even though I'm using the same color profile in both apps. My computer is a Macbook pro 13-inch 2017 with Two Thunderbolt 3 ports.

 

This is a screenshot of how both apps show the color of the same object

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 21, 2020

In Illustrator too. I have the same CMYK Color proof.

Now, I have tried to change de GPU x CPU view and I got a closer looking color with the CPU On in Illustrator. But, even though the colors are pretty much alike, the RGB color code in Photoshop is completely different than the one in Illustrator.

 

 


I suspect your display profile when colors change between using the GPU (your monitor card) and CPU.

E2250 profile (the profile from your screendump) is the profile of an LG monitor, is that your monitor?

dan.c.pf
Participant
May 20, 2020

I've got a user with exactly the same problem. Can't figure out what's happening to her as she's had the issue over two different computers. Completely reinstalling the entire Adobe suite seemed to help on her previous machine. Trying it today on her current machine and see if it helps.

 

This is pretty ridiculous though.