Inconsistent Colors - Illustrator on Windows

[dacantrell86]

My colors are all wrong in illustrator, and illustrator alone. Everything is fine in photoshop, however when i try to select 100% yellow in illustrator i get orange! its insane! and the worst part is that the colors are actually correct, its just how the interface of illustrator works. When I try to screen shot, then place the image in another app, the colors look fine. Not sure what to do, I've been messing with my color settings to see if that makes any difference, but nothing helps at all. It makes it impossible to use the program with color. Again, I don't have this problem with photoshop or acrobat, just illustrator. What is going on?

[Monika Gause]

Please show your color settings.

How do you place your screenshots?

Which document color mode is it?

Which color profile?

Do you use the soft proof?

[dacantrell86]

I take a screen shot then past into photoshop where i have the same color settings.

[dacantrell86]

Working space RGB: Monitor RGB- (My monitor)

CMYK: US Web Coated (SWOP) v2

I have tried all the options in this panel for the color settings and nothing changes, i have the document color mode in RGB, and the colors change a bit if i switch to CMYK, but not bettter. Again, when I set a color to 100 Y and 0 for all else, it is orange.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

"Working space RGB: Monitor RGB- (My monitor)"

You should not be using your monitor profile for your working document space. Monitor profiles are meant to tell your system what the monitor can display.. that's it. It is NOT the same as a document profile like sRGB or Adobe RGB which you should use.

[dacantrell86]

ok, but when i change to the "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" (or literally any other option, the colors stay relatively the same. I just want yellow to be yellow, not orange. if you look at the image i uploaded, you can see that the hex code isn't even for the color yellow when i put in 100%Y.... Something weird is going on here, and i don't think it has anything to do with the color settings tbh

[Monika Gause]

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@dacantrell86  schrieb:

 i don't think it has anything to do with the color settings tbh

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Most of the time it has.

"Monitor" should not be your color profile and if you do not know what you are doing, then please learn  about it. Color management has been there for nearly 25 years, it will not go away and it works the same in any publishing app. You *have* to learn it.

You can start here, but those pages in the helpx barely touch the surface: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/setting-color-management.html

If you take screenshots, then Monitor is also the color profile attached to those screenshots. Also: they are RGB files and you are showing CMYK sliders there, but talking about HEX codes, which is again an RGB thing. Are you aware of the differences between RGB and CMYK?

Anyway: please post a screenshot of your color settings.

And then please tell us step by step what you are doing. Are you working in a CMYK or in an RGB file?

[dacantrell86]

[dacantrell86]

I do know the difference between RGB and CMYK, and the project I am working on is for print, so I work in CMYK, however none of this is really the problem, which is what I was trying to emphasize with the hex code point. When i put in 100% yellow, no Cyan, no Magenta, and no Black, I get the color orange (FFA765) instead of yellow (FFF00).

[Monika Gause]

Do not use HEX code in CMYK color mode. HEX code is RGB.

You have to turn on color management policies. Make sure you set CMYK to not change the numbers. And then you need to work with CMYK values, not with RGB HEX codes. Do you have a printed sample that tells you how your color should look like?

HEX codes are device dependant. You cannot rely on what you see so actully you do not know what is correct unless you view it on a calibrated monitor.

[dacantrell86]

I have not printed this out yet, but I did just download a different program to try to finish this design in (Inkscape). When I import the file, all the colors are what they should be, so you are right, there is some issue with the adobe program and how it is displaying the colors. 

I changed my color Management policies as such:
RGB: preserve Embedded Profiles

CMYK: Preserve Numbers (Ignore Linked Profiles)

This is what they change to when I select the "North America General Purpose 2" option under the first drop down menu "Settings"

Nothing changes when i do this though

[Monika Gause]

I have not printed this out yet, but I did just download a different program to try to finish this design in (Inkscape).

By @dacantrell86

Inkscape is RGB only. Although you can enter CMYK values. They get converted and Inkscape uses color management as well for that. It needs to be set up, and it will use different engines and will give you different results.

What do you mean with "the color is as it should be". The way you imagine it?

You will not be able to reproduce that without using a calibrated monitor or a reliable physical comparison (a printed color chart).

[dacantrell86]

As in, when i choose the color yellow, it is yellow and not orange.

To explain further, I created a square in adobe illustrator and filled it with 100% yellow (using cmyk, however i have used the rgb slider as well to the same effect). this square looks orange in adobe illustrator, and has the hex code FFA765 (sorry to use hex code again, it just is a good way to explain the color showing). Then I save the file and open in Inkscape and I have a yellow box with hex code FFF200 (the color I expected to see when I use 100% Yellow). 

[dacantrell86]

see how the color looks orange on the lef side where it says "CMYK YELLOW"? But then on the right side you can clearly see the intended color? This is the problem. Obviously the monitor and program(illustrator) can work together to show me the "correct portayal of the 100% yellow, however in the document all i get is the "wrong" orange displayed on the left. What is this? Is this actually a problem with my settings? or is it something else?

[dacantrell86]

Also, I have tried all the possible settings options, and none of them fix this color issue

[dacantrell86]

[renél80416020]

Bonjour,

Paramètres: Personnalisés

Settings: Custom

Peut-être à modifier ici?

[Ton Frederiks]

This is not a good option. Emulate Illustrator 6.0 turns color management off, which results in having no idea what you are seeing or printing.

[renél80416020]

Je voulais juste préconiser une modification à choisir dans la liste déroulante...

[Ton Frederiks]

OK, it looked like you recommended the first option.

[Ton Frederiks]

Do you have multiple monitors? 

[dacantrell86]

I do have multiple monitors. I have tried all of the possible settings options, and all the RGB options (under the "working spaces" category) that are available, and none of them give me the correct colors on either monitor. My only options for my monitor to display in are RGB and YCbCr (RGB is the current setting used)

[Ton Frederiks]

And if you do not use the external monitor, do the colors behave like expexted?

[dacantrell86]

I am running off a pc, the only monitor are external. If I move the project to my macbook pro, and open in illustrator, the colors are correct, and the colors are correct if I open the project in photoshop on my pc, or acrobat on my pc, or Inkscape on my pc. Everything is wrong in Illustrator though

[Ton Frederiks]

And you cannot calibrate your monitor?