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daltona98603925
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

    T
    TOGPRODUCT
    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
    Ton FrederiksCommunity 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
    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
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 21, 2020

    This is what I did to get correct color: The monitor color profile has to be the same as the Photoshop and Illustrator color profiles (I've set them to sRGB). The soft proof profiles (have to be the same also - Choose View > Proof Setup to set them). And you have to restart your computer after making all these changes. That was it. Turning the color profile warnings in photoshop and illustrator will help managing color problems in the future.


    Very good to hear that you've got it solved.

    In this case setting the monitor profile to sRGB worked, but actually the monitor profile should not influence the color values, so I have something to think about 🙂

    dan.c.pf
    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.

     

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