pdf's of same image darker in illustrator than in Indesign

[Frits5C99]

I use the same image file for a book cover, made in Illustrator, and in the book interior, made in Indesign. They look the same in the Illustrator and Indesign files. However, producing a pdf from either results in a much darker image in the Illustrator pdf. The image is greyscale. What could be the cause of this?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Settings for the PDF are the same?

Then the only reason can be that Illustrator cannot handle the greyscale color profile very well.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/issue-when-adding-greyscale-files-into-illust...

[Frits5C99]

Settings for pdf were not the same. Making them the same as in Indesign solved it! (And I'm glad it did, as trying to understand the other discussion would cost me another evening...)

[Ton Frederiks]

There are many problems with greyscale images in Illustrator.

Depending on if the are embedded or linked, placed in an RGB or CMYK document, they become darker or transparent. See this report from 2020:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/41260390-embedd...

[Frits5C99]

Thanks everyone for reactions. Problem seems to be solved, see above.

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear you've got it solved, but what was the difference in settings that caused the problem?

[Frits5C99]

That's a bit difficult question for me. I'm not very familiar (to say the least) with everything 'under the hood'; I just know how to drive the car. A former colleague once took me step-by step making a customized set for making pdf's, and I haven't the slightest idea what these settings are doing. In Illustrator the standard set was used. I can try to compare the different settings, but the screens are in Dutch and don't ask me for English translations. If that would be helpful to you, I can capture some screens.

[Ton Frederiks]

Jazeker, Nederlands is prima!