Colors washed out in Illustrator vs. Photoshop

[Jack Brannen]

Below is a screenshot of the same Hex colors in Illustrator next to Photoshop. Illustrator colors are washed out and wrong. (Images in the Finder match Photoshop, as they should.)

Illustrator Proof Colors is turned ON and set to sRGB, same as Photoshop. What am I missing?

TIA!

[Monika Gause]

Is color management set up in the same ways? 

What happens when you turn off the proof?

Color definitions are also the same?

[Jack Brannen]

Both documents are set to "Don't color manage" and look the same when they are changed to sRGB.

No change when I turn off the proof.

(Does this answer your Qs? I'm not super knowledgeable about color management.)

Thanks!

[Monika Gause]

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@Jack Brannen  schrieb:

I'm not super knowledgeable about color management.

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You should change that.

No current graphic design application works without color management. Even if you think you have turned it off, it still is doing its thing. Only you have no influence on it.

[Jack Brannen]

Thanks guys. How do I enable color management? I thought setting my document profile and proof settings was the entirety of what I needed to be doing.

[Monika Gause]

Please start by reading about it: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/color-management.html 

[Jack Brannen]

Okay I have my color setting synced via Bridge now. But the documents still look different. What should I do next?

[Monika Gause]

Can you please tell us your system and hardware info?

The screenshot is very blurry. This is an RGB document in Illustrator?

Can you please tell us how everything is set up, including the document itself?

Any soft proof turned on?

Do you have 2 monitors?

[Jack Brannen]

Thanks, Monika. The screenshot was uploaded full quality and displays full quality for me when I click on it from this forum—may be something on your end there.

• M1 MacBook Pro running macOS 13.4 and latest non-beta versions of CC apps
• I do have an external monitor, but the images actually look fine on that. It's on my fancy MacBook internal monitor that the colors are different.
• Color settings are "North American General Purpose 2" synced across all Adobe apps
• Adobe AI file: RGB image, proofing off
• Then I am opening that AI file in Photoshop: RGB image, proofing off

Any other Qs?

Thanks for the guidance!

[Ton Frederiks]

What is the Document Color Profile of the Illustrator document (you can see in Edit > Assign Profile if it differs from the Working RGB)?

Do you have multiple monitors?

[Jack Brannen]

Both Illustrator and Photoshop were set to "Don't color manage" but look exactly the same when I set them to sRGB. I do have multiple monitors, but right now I'm working on my MacBook Pro screen.

[Jack Brannen]

The screenshot above is probably from my external monitor, but the problem is on my MacBook screen, too.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

I would start using color management, make sure that files have profiles and turn on the warnings for missing/mismatched profiles in your Color Settings and sync them across your Adobe apps.