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Help, Why are the colours all faded?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
September 29, 2022
4 replies
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Help please, I'm newish to using Illustrator. Everything was ok colour-wise the last week when I used it. But for the last few days, everything is the wrong colour. The thumbnails show the correct colours, but when I open the file it is completely wrong. I've reinstalled the software twice now making sure not to keep the setting. but everything seems to have a green gradient or the colour is really off. in the screenshot the colour is red, but in the file its pink. Everything seemed to go pastel shade. Ive check the colour setting. Ive match the colour profiles to the other PC running AI. The gradient says black and white but is green. Im losing the plot. Can anyone give me a idea how to fix it please.

I've used the embedded profile

How to

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Correct answer Anubhav M

Hello @Clare Wright 95,

Sorry to hear about this experience. I hope the suggestions shared by Lukas helped resolve the problem. If not, kindly try recalibrating your monitor by following the steps below, as suggested by Monika, Ton, and Lukas, and share your observations:

Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.
Click Display. Make sure you're using the recommended screen resolution for your display.
Click the Advanced display settings link.

Now click on the link for Display Adaptor properties
Click on the option for Color management
Go to the Advanced tab and ensure all profiles are set to the System Default (sRGB). Then, click on Calibrate Display.
The wizard will now walk you through the steps to access the on-screen display menu on your monitor to set specific color settings. Click Next to continue.
- Adjust the gamma settings by moving the slider up or down until the small dots are barely visible.

- Find the brightness controls on your monitor and adjust the brightness higher or lower until you can distinguish the shirt from the suit with the X barely visible.

- Find the contrast controls on your monitor and set it as high as possible without losing the ability to see the wrinkles and buttons on the shirt.

- Move the Red, Green and Blue sliders to remove any color cast from the Gray bars.

Note: You can optionally start the ClearType tuner at the end of this calibration to make text on-screen more legible.

After the calibration is complete, kindly restart the computer and then check if the colors are consistent with Windows on your Adobe apps.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav

Anubhav M

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hello @Clare Wright 95,

Sorry to hear about this experience. I hope the suggestions shared by Lukas helped resolve the problem. If not, kindly try recalibrating your monitor by following the steps below, as suggested by Monika, Ton, and Lukas, and share your observations:

Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.
Click Display. Make sure you're using the recommended screen resolution for your display.
Click the Advanced display settings link.

Now click on the link for Display Adaptor properties
Click on the option for Color management
Go to the Advanced tab and ensure all profiles are set to the System Default (sRGB). Then, click on Calibrate Display.
The wizard will now walk you through the steps to access the on-screen display menu on your monitor to set specific color settings. Click Next to continue.
- Adjust the gamma settings by moving the slider up or down until the small dots are barely visible.

- Find the brightness controls on your monitor and adjust the brightness higher or lower until you can distinguish the shirt from the suit with the X barely visible.

- Find the contrast controls on your monitor and set it as high as possible without losing the ability to see the wrinkles and buttons on the shirt.

- Move the Red, Green and Blue sliders to remove any color cast from the Gray bars.

Note: You can optionally start the ClearType tuner at the end of this calibration to make text on-screen more legible.

After the calibration is complete, kindly restart the computer and then check if the colors are consistent with Windows on your Adobe apps.

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Anubhav

C

Clare Wright 95Author

Participating Frequently

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Anubhav it fixed it, the colours are back 🙂

Lukas Engqvist

Community Expert

I would suggest the general purpose settings rather than the prepress setting since sRGB mor common in brand guidelines and in Pantone Bridge books. (The Dissadvantage with general purpose settings is they don't warn on missmatch).

Also note that there may be a document profile, beside the workinspace profile. The Document profile is set with the colour settings you had when the document was created. You can assign a document profile (or untagg a document so that it follows the working colour settings).

In your inital screendumps you had some strange profiles, but they may be correct if they were indended. Colour Match RGB was common 20 years ago in Newspaper world. Fogra 29 was for uncoated paper (in Europe), the modern version is Fogra 52, or PSO Uncoated v3.
Your screendump shows you are viewing a preview, you can set the preview to a specific profile. You can also set the preview to simulate colour blindness. Would be good to know what you are previewing (Proof Settup settings).

Would be useful to see the Separation Preview to know that you are viewing all printing plates. Looks like you have Cyan and Magenta only and the blacK (Key) and Yellow plates are off.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

The stroke item in your Tools panel looks strange, with a greenish line and centre where it should be white and gray.

It also looks if the gradient is not applied to the selection (see fill in the Tools panel and fill in the Properties panel).

I would suggest to reinstall Illustrator without keeping preferences (maybe backup swatches and other settings first if you customized them). Check your Monitor and reset the Color settings, like Monika suggested.

C

Clare Wright 95Author

Participating Frequently

HI, That is the part I think is causing the issue. I have reinstalled AI twice no both not keeping the settings. The monitor is fine as the thumbnails are correct red white and blue. When I open the file it all changes