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H
Hayes-QT
Participant
June 10, 2025
Answered

Drastic colour difference with same colour management settings in Photoshop v Illustrator

  • June 10, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 504 views

Setting up master logo set for client... Have built CMYK & RGB versions in illustrator.

When importing the RGB .ai file to Photoshop - colour looks drastically more intense, even though it is the exact same RGB breakdown + colour management settings are the same - Adobe very kindly points out that they default to the same colour management across the programs for consistency.

I'm completely stumped and not sure what the workaround is (other than visually trying to match in Photoshop but have the wrong actual breakdown - which is surely a recipe for future inconsistency) - would appreciate any help please and thank you.

screen grabs attached

Correct answer Ton Frederiks

Although the Color Settings are the same, the Document Color Profile can be different.

That can happen when you open an image in Illustrator or drag and drop an image with a different profile.

You can check the Document Color Profile of your document at the bottom of your Illustrator document window:

2 replies

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
June 10, 2025

Although the Color Settings are the same, the Document Color Profile can be different.

That can happen when you open an image in Illustrator or drag and drop an image with a different profile.

You can check the Document Color Profile of your document at the bottom of your Illustrator document window:

H
Hayes-QTAuthor
Participant
June 10, 2025

Thank you so much for that advice.

In Photoshop, I was able to "Assign profile" to the same one in the colour settings of both Photoshop & Illustrator (odd that there is 2 places to apply this) and it now shows the colour correctly.

There are so many variables with colour management - would be great if Photoshop had just one place to assign a profile.

Thanks again for your time.

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 10, 2025

Yes assign profile is a good way to correct it when the numbers are right but the profile is wrong. Good to hear you  could solve it.

H
Hayes-QTAuthor
Participant
June 10, 2025

actually sorry I've solved it... I was importing the new RGB .ai files into their existing RGB photoshop files – which even though it had the same colour management settings, there must've been some colour characteristic within the file that was distorting the output...

If I create new photoshop files it seems to be consistent with the Illustrator files. 

Solved. phew.

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