Export/save as sRGB png including icc profile in Illustrator

[Mannschaft]

Why is it not possible to export/save an illustration as a png image with the sRGB profile included just the same way as it is possible for jpg images? The difference is obvious when viewing the png image in Firefox (in Safari and Chrome the colors appear correctly).

The easiest workaround for this problem that I could find is to produce a png image with illustrator and assign the sRGB profile afterwards in Apple Preview.

Is there another way to achieve this result  in one step within Illustrator? Just checking the 'convert to sRGB' option does not seem to make any difference.

{Renamed by MOD}

[Monika Gause]

Please post this to http://illustrator.uservoice.com to get it fixed

[MikeGondek]

Your post does not tell us what you used to achieve your result. Would be very helpful if you included step by step what you did or atleast a screesnhot.

1. Ilustrator: edit >> assign profile
2. Ilustrator: file >> export as >> png

  

On file >> export: for .png the current profile is assigned. With .jpg, you have the extra option of not embedding the profile

  

[user4269660]

Same problem here. AI 26.0.3, profile is assigned in Illustrator, the exported (export as... and save for web...) as PNG, opened in PS, and always the "no profile assigned" screen is popping up. AI just doesn't include the profile when exporting/saving as PNG.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

The short answer is PNG, by spec, is assumed to be sRGB by default so does not require a profile to be embedded. Although it IS possible to embed a different profile in programs like Photoshop, there's a good chance it will be ignored in browsers and any other program not color managed.

[user4269660]

Sorry, but no. Here you find the PNG specs:

https://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-PNG-20031110/

Although PNG is by concept a web format, it is not true, that there is any definition, that it's sRGB by default. Many browsers just assume a non-tagged image to be sRGB, but the opposite examples rendering PNG wrongly if not profiled correctly are also true. 

If you have a look at specs 4.2:

"PNG decoders are strongly encouraged to use this information, plus information about the display system, in order to present the image to the viewer in a way that reproduces as closely as possible what the image's original author saw ."

So this can be seen as a general call to use color management with PNG. RGB profiles are small, so there is absolutely no reason not to tag a PNG with a ICC profile, as other  applications do. Of course, AI is not a tool with a focus on creating web content, so this might be the reason, Adobe did not support this so far. But regarding the class leading efforts, Adobe has done with integrating color management into PS in the last decades, it's a shame ignoring it here.

With JPEG, AI does support the embedding of ICC profiles. Here you could argue the same way, that this would not be neccessary.

[Ton Frederiks]

The long answer is that it good practice to embed profiles in images that support it to enable a color managed workflow. Currently Illustrator breaks this workflow, it uses the document profile for export but does not embed that profile. There is no option to convert to sRGB when exporting. And Illustrator does not use embedded profiles when opening or placing a PNG.

I have seen many complaints about color changes with placed PNG's, totally avoidable in a colormanaged workflow.

[Ton Frederiks]

Please vote here (maybe all of them), the oldest one is from 2017:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/314...

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/395...

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/346...