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Answered

Illustrator is inverting colors on an image

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
April 12, 2018
9 replies
24263 views

I was sent a PDF that when I open it on Illustrator, it inverts the colors on the image. The image is embedded, in the Links panel its say NA for format. The file was originally created in Flexi, which I assume is the issue, I just want to know what and why. My solution was to simply invert them back. Here what's weird... The thumbnail preview in Finder display the color correctly, it's when I open it on Illustrator that they get inverted. Tried Photoshop, same thing, preview displays as it should, when opened it inverts them. If I open it as a PDF in Reader, it displays just fine.

Correct answer Mike_Gondek10189183

I'm with Jeff, Illustrator is not a PDF editor.

First try view >> overprint preview

Then try File >> Document color Mode >> change CMYK to RGB or visa versa . PDF can have both document colors modes in the same file.

A

Anson Yau

Participant

I have a better and easier solution after trying all the different methods (which didn't work).

Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, export the PDF as EPS or PS file.
Open the EPS or PS in Illustrator and you should get it.

K

KateMercado5875

Participant

I encountered this issue today. I got a PDF with an embedded image that came out negative when I opened the file in Illustrator.

What I did was to select the image from Illustrator and pasted it in Photoshop as a layer. I then changed the blending mode from Normal to either Difference, Exclusion or Subtract. These modes basically inverts the blend color to the base color or vice versa.

This is the end result.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

I assume the image looks OK in Acrobat?

In that case: Open the PDF in Photohop.

Then make sure in the Import dialog to select the tab "Images"

Select the image and import it.

Save it as a PSD or TIF

Place in Illustrator

Do not copy/paste from Illustrator to Photoshop. That might ruin a few things.

K

KateMercado5875

Participant

Thanks. The image was ok when I checked it and it came out ok when it was printed.

T

troyz55570316

Participant

Last time I saved my Illustrator EPS layouts with placed in imagery... it's fine. Next day I open it, yes sometimes the images are inverted! I don't understand why!

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Last time I saved my Illustrator EPS layouts with placed in imagery... it's fine. Next day I open it, yes sometimes the images are inverted! I don't understand why!

By @troyz55570316

That looks like it's related to a current bug. But I don't know if it is related to this thread.

Nico88

Participating Frequently

I'm feeling this like a bug of Illustrator. If we got a PDF containing a JPEG image in colormode CMYK.

This is correctly rendered on Acrobat Reader and Photoshop. Why does Illustrator apply Invert?

I would not consider this thread as solved and completed. AI is not managing correctly this situation.

The answer marked as correct from Jeff Witchel does not fit when for example if you are programmatically creating PDF for printing (colormode CMYK). IMHO this answer goes around the problem and does not explain why Illustrator takes the "decision" to invert the embedded cmyk image.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

You might want to read this, which collects quotes by *the* experts on PDF:

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-ten-commandments-of-pdf.html

Nico88

Participating Frequently

Hi Monika,

these are very interesting resources.

I wonder why they are not officially supported and documented by Adobe. Or maybe I'm still missing the official resources about this : I see for example it's mentioned this "Adobe Book" which I'm not sure what book it is... is it referencing to an existing book? Do you have the ref?

If we can assume this Blog information as an Adobe Manifesto or philosophy...

Honestly I still find hard to digest, since I was aware about the Adobe Suite feature of interchangeability of the files across different Adobe software to leverage the power of each of them for a final professional result...
Blog Author itself is talking about "not standard workflow practices" he used breaking best practice:
I wonder then what would be the best practice to create (programmatically) a cross sw Adobe Suite template that might be then opened with different software.

Creating a PDF with an SDK, to be cross open by AdobeSuite Sw collection for further modification/customisation, was the original idea... but it seems like not in Adobe's plan to give us this chance?

DrTc

Inspiring

There has been a long time issue with Illustrator, when exporting to screen as jpg from a CMYK document.
Instead of converting it to SRGB as Ps does, it exports it as cmyk jpg and colors appear inverted.

D

default8k6v16rktlyq

Participant

Has there been any resolution to this issue at all?

H

Hodi-Content

Participant

The most simple way is opening the PDF in Photoshop and save it in Press Quality in cmyk mode.

After this Illustrator shows the color in the images the right way. (not negative)

T

tobymikle

Inspiring

Actually Adobe illustartor IS a PDF editor, you can create multi page PDFs, import and export. I am having the same problem. None of the commets here have solved this. The only thing I can think of that works is to export as high resolution jpgs then re-import, but that makes in undetiable.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

No, Illustrator is not a PDF editor.

PDF is not a native file format - PDFs can just be imported, which in turn means that Illustrator converts the PDF's data structure into its own structure. A couple of object Illustrator doesn'teven understand. And what you experience is probably caused by either image formats or color profiles that Illustrator doesn't fully understand either and then ignores or converts badly. This effectively ruins the PDF.

And if you don't believe us then maybe you believe the people who are responsible for the PDF file format at Adobe (and have been for the last ~20years and thus know the format better than most people in the industry) : https://prepression.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-ten-commandments-of-pdf.html

T

tobymikle

Inspiring

You can create a PDF from scratch and export a multi page PDF from Illustartor from which you can edit in any way without the use of any other software. How does that disqualify it from being a PDF editor?

F

Fer Herrera

Participant

Hi everyone, this is the easiest way to fix this problem super quickly. 😉

https://youtu.be/Xj5A7p6-pXw

Hope y'all find this helpful!
Stay safe! ❤️

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Your video does not solve the issue in this thread.

Mike_Gondek10189183

Correct answer

Community Expert

I'm with Jeff, Illustrator is not a PDF editor.

First try view >> overprint preview

Then try File >> Document color Mode >> change CMYK to RGB or visa versa . PDF can have both document colors modes in the same file.

A

Anita344380828ags

Participant

Thank you! This solved the issue 🙂

Jeff Witchel, ACI

Community Expert

The answer to your question is simple. Opening PDFs in Illustrator that were created in other applications can cause strange things to happen. Why? Illustrator is NOT a PDF editor. If you want to edit a PDF, try the editing features in Acrobat DC.

Here's a video tutorial about these features: http://www.jeffwitchel.net/2015/08/edit-pdfs-like-never-before-in-acrobat-dc/

Enjoy!

C

cilupercioAuthor

Participating Frequently

I am aware of that. I did not imply Illustrator is a PDF editor, I am aware the PDF created in Flexi is the issue. I was asking why, more specifically, the technical reasons were this can be replicated. This customer doesn't get it, and while I would love to tell them to stop using Flexi period, that isn't an option. I've had my share of weird files and this was a first to me so thought I can give them a better answer than "your file doesn't work with my program, send me something else" since EPS is what I asked for in the first place. I hate PDFs when sent for printing for this reason. This job came and went, but I was curious anyways.

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