Inspiring

Question

Bug in Export For Screens; wrong profiles assigned to JPGs and JPG 100 creates CMYK file

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
May 4, 2023
3 replies
1901 views

When I use Export for Screens, I find that JPG 100 outputs a jpeg in the CMYK colour space. Other JPG settings (80, 50, 20) all otput a file in the RGB colour space, as one would expect from a function called 'Export For Screens'.

However, even those JPG settings that export to the correct colour space then assign a CMYK colour profile to the resulting jpeg file, even when the 'Embed ICC profile' box is checked in the Format Settings dialogue. Try opening one of those files in Photoshop and PS will rightly complain that the profile is invalid and will be ignored.

PNG files seem to export fine, always arriving as RGB files (and PNGs cannot be assigned ICC profiles, so that bug is irrelevant in their case)

This problem seems to have arrived in one of the most recent updates; in recent weeks I have been redrawing a large collection of logo files (created as CMYK files using spot colour swatches, since they are mainly used for print) and have then been exporting each file as a series of 'screen use' versions (4 sizes of PNG, 4 sizes of JPG, SVG). I have been using the same 'Export For Screens' workflow each time, always with the same settings (JPG 100 for the jpeg images). Only the jpeg exports from the last few days have been exported as CMYK files; files exported before that time have all been exported (correctly) as RGB files.

This is clearly a bug — since I can't think of any situation where a file exported specifically for on-screen use would be expected to be CMYK, nor for an RGB file to be given a CMYK profile — and it needs to be fixed ASAP.

Extra info: Adobe Illustrator 27.5, Mac OS 13.3

This topic has been closed for replies.

R

ricklecoatAuthor

Inspiring

It seems that even Adobe’s own Help pages are out of step with the reality of the application. The online guide includes the following screenshot of the Format Settings dialogue box, and it clearly shows the option to choose a specific colour model for the export on a format-by-format basis:

That doesn’t seem to be the case in the application itself, however. Calling up the Format Settings dialogue in Illustrator 27.5 (the latest, at time of writing) shows only a subset of those options, like so:

Export For Screens is, clearly then, something of a chaotic mess, which is a shame because it's incredibly useful and something that, until I discovered that it was outputting only CMYK jpegs, I was using to generate a very large number of ‘screen usage’ conversions of spot colour logos. Other than laboriously converting all those jpegs to RGB in Photoshop I'm not sure what my workaround is (and even if I go down that route there's no guarantee that the RGB colour arrived at would be the same as converting direct from spot ink to RGB in a single step — that intermediate CMYK conversion during export might throw things off).

Adobe needs to get this sorted out as a matter of priority.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Please comment and/or vote for the bug report Ton posted above. The developers do not read this forum.

R

ricklecoatAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Monika,

I already have voted on Ton's linked report, in fact. However, it deals with a slightly different issue (Illustrator’s lack of ability to embed a colour profile into a PNG file), rather than Illustrator inexplicably exporting CMYK jpegs for screen use (and not offering a choice of colour model, which the docs seems to suggest that it should do). I have also added my vote to a more tightly-related feature request, however: Export for Screens, CMYK to RGB.

Any upvotes for that request would, of course, be most welcome.

R

ricklecoatAuthor

Inspiring

And, just to throw more confusion into the mix…

in an effort to determine where the issue (recently) began, I reverted to older versions of Illustrator. Each one that I reverted to (I went back to one of the early v26s) exported ALL jpegs as CMYK. This bizarrely contradicted my own experience, because I know for a fact that only a month or so ago I was using ‘Export For Screens’ to export CMYK(and spot) artwork EPSes as RGB JPG-100s -- I've got the exported files to prove it. And then, when I uninstalled the earlier versions of Illustrator and reinstalled v27.5 (the current version, at time of writing) I discovered that that too had lost the ability to export RGB jpegs via Export For Screens, even when using one of the lower quality export settings.

What to make of this? I have no idea. But something seems screwy.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

You may want to vote here for the option to convert CMYK to RGB for jpegs for screens.

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/20556598-export-for-screens-cmyk-to-rgb

I cannot replicate the conversion and profile problems that you describe, CMYK profiles are correctly embedded and recognized by Photoshop, but I can remember that there were problems in the past.

(and aside: a PNG can have a profile embedded: https://www.color.org/profile_embedding.xalter )

R

ricklecoatAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for your input, Ton.

I should have been clearer: I meant that Illustrator’s ‘Export For Screens’ function does not appear to allow embedding of profiles. But yes, as you say, PNGs can have profiles embedded, as a simple ‘Save As’ in Photoshop demonstrates.

As for the vote: I've now done that, although the thread dates from 2017. You say that you are unable to replicate the issue; may I ask what version of Illustrator you are running? This issue seems to have only (re)manifested in the last update or so.

Also, you say that "CMYK profiles are correctly embedded and recognised by Photoshop" but the issue is that the settings JPG80, JPG50 and JPG20 are embedding CMYK profiles into RGB files (which PS will balk at). If you were referring to a JPG100 export then, yes, I guess the profile will be accepted by Photoshop, but only because a CMYK profile has been embedded in a CMYK file — which is a larger problem, since the file itself should be RGB, with an RGB profile.

Did I misunderstand you?

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Rick, I have (almost) given up asking for embedding profiles into png files (this is 5 years old: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/34662151-please-provide-ability-to-embed-color-profiles-whe )

IN using version 27.5, I cannot replicate the jpeg problems anymore, RGB jpegs get an RGB profile and CMYK jpegs a CMYK one.

Check if using Export > Export As... > JPEG with a profile works and check if that influences the Export for Screens settings.

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