Inspiring

Answered

Export for screens creates CMYK pdf instead of RGB in some artboards

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
August 13, 2024
2 replies
2269 views

I'm stumped by this, which I assume is a bug.

I have an AI file with 60+ artboards of logos in RGB using the same RGB swatches.

I am exporting them with 'Export for screens' as PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF files. They are all meant to be in RGB and the PNG, JPG and SVG files are all fine.

When I use 'Export for screens', all the files are in RGB EXCEPT the logos with a white (transparent) background; those files are CMYK files. Here's a screenshot of the color settings in the PDF preset I'm using.

Any ideas how I can prevent the CMYK?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer reinko17602090

I think I've found the source of the problem:

I'm using RGB Spot color swatches (so they are picked up in InDesign)
When you Export for screens and all the elements have ONLY Spot colors (even if those are RGB Spot colors), Illustrator and InDesign see it as a CMYK file
As soon as you have one 'normal' RGB-colored element (white in my other color examples), they see it as an RGB file

I'm thinking I will add a white dot behind the icon so I don't have to change the Spot colors and the file will still be recognized as intended.

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reinko17602090AuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

I think I've found the source of the problem:

I'm using RGB Spot color swatches (so they are picked up in InDesign)
When you Export for screens and all the elements have ONLY Spot colors (even if those are RGB Spot colors), Illustrator and InDesign see it as a CMYK file
As soon as you have one 'normal' RGB-colored element (white in my other color examples), they see it as an RGB file

I'm thinking I will add a white dot behind the icon so I don't have to change the Spot colors and the file will still be recognized as intended.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Looks like you found a bug.

The PDF preset and the way of saving/exporting does not seem to matter.

As long as there are only Spot RGB colors used, Illustrator thinks it is a CMYK document.

You may want to report this problem here:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

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reinko17602090Author

Inspiring

Thanks, I will!

Monika Gause

Community Expert

And you open the PDFs in Acrobat? Can you show a screenshot of them being CMYK?

Can you please also upload a demo file that has the same kinds of objects as your file so we can try and reproduce this? Change the file extension to pdf then you can upload it to the forum.

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reinko17602090Author

Inspiring

Thanks for your help troubleshooting this — in making a simplified demo file I have learned something baffling:

* when I export with the background layer visible, all the files export as RGB

* when I hide the background layer to get a transparent PDF, the one with the hidden white background becomes CMYK

I've tried moving the backgrounds to another (hidden) layer, but this doesn't help. What does seem to work is deleting the background layer entirely. Here's my file, renamed as .pdf.

demo_RGB_-_CMYK_export_problem.pdf

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reinko17602090Author

Inspiring

I cannot replicate your problem, whatever I tried, Acrobat Preflight sees only RGB objects.

Be careful with the default PDF settings for Export For Screens, they are set to smallest filesize.

If you ever have images in your file, they will be reduced to a low quality jpeg.

Thanks, I'm aware of the presets — I created my own with better image quality.

Re: the acrobat preflight RGB: that seems to be the case, but when I open it in Illustrator it is a CMYK document, and when I place that PDF in InDesign (using RGB blend space), it thinks the Spot colors are CMYK instead of RGB and they do in fact render as the wrong RGB values.

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