Rgb Jpg exports from illustrator never look accurate to what's on screen, but Pdf exports do. Help?

[Submarino]

I've had this issue for a number of years with illustrator and still cannot figure out a workaround to get the vibrancy in my logos that I want. My graphics are in rgb, and export with cc profiles, the document is set to rgb, I've tried saving for web, maximum quality and size exports, nothing. Every jpg comes out slightly washed out, but not as bad as pngs. On the other hand, pdfs with profiles embedded have always exported wonderfly for me with full vibrance.

I'm not sure there's a way to export jpgs with the color profile I desire. Or at least, I've tried countless times to do it and haven't succeeded. Is there a way through photoshop or acrobat, to open the pdf version of the file, and revert it to a jpg so that those color profiles stay in tact? I haven't been very successful with it but others may have more ideas than I have.

I will link a side by side comparison between a jpg saved for web with maximum quality, cc profiles on, at 1200 x 1200 resolution, compared to a simple pdf export on the right. I'm not sure if the screenshot will portray it properly but the color difference is obvious in person.

[Ton Frederiks]

How is your Color Management set up?

Can you show your Color Settings?

What is your Document Color Profile?

[Submarino]

Document is RGB color mode

Proof Setup is in RGB monitor, proof colors is on

I will link a screenshot of my color settings, as well as a pdf of my art

[Monika Gause]

Your monitor profile should not be the base of proofing. If you set it to sRGB, you'll probably get closer to the result.

Also: there are 3 checkboxes in the color settings, you want to turn them on.

[Submarino]

So how am I able to export exactly what I see on monitor through pdf? Does PDF file exporting match exactly what you see on screen versus jpg which matches what the file is actually set as?

what three check boxes? Ask when opening, ask when pasting, ask when opening? How does that affect my jpg exporting?

[Monika Gause]

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@Submarino  schrieb:

what three check boxes? Ask when opening, ask when pasting, ask when opening? How does that affect my jpg exporting?

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It gives you are warning every time you open or import or place something that doesn't match your settings. Such as when you place a screenshot. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Your Illustrator document has a Display P3 profile, which is different from the sRGB you have set up in the Color Settings.

Check this at the bottom of your document:

[Submarino]

By 'checking the bottom of my document', what do you mean exactly? Is there a tab or section I can right click at the bottom of the page?

Would having that match the sRGB profile selected allow jpg's to export more accurately to the colors seen on screen?

[Ton Frederiks]

See the screendum for the location, it probably shows the name of your current tool.

[Submarino]

I cannot seem to find a dialing box with (display) at the bottom of my illustrator window. All that is displayed is the name of the current tool I am using. Do you know how to get this information to display so I can right click and change that setting like your screenshot shows?

[Ton Frederiks]

Just click the arrow next to the name of the current tool and select the Document Color Profile.

[Submarino]

Okay, I've done that and now it shows untagged RGB at the bottom of my window. What do I do now with this?

[Ton Frederiks]

That could explain it. The document is not color managed.

If you know what color profile should be used, like sRGB, you can assign it to your document.

Edit > Assign Profile...

[Submarino]

Tried that before leaving work this morning, and assigned my file to the correct rgb that matched my monitor profile. The file was exported very de-saturated similarly to cmyk. Not sure what I've done wrong to make the file export worse

[Ton Frederiks]

Your Monitor profile is not a good working space.

Can you check in your Edit > Color Settings the boxes for Profile Warnings and Mismatches.

When you Open your file, you will have an option to convert it to your working space profile.

[Submarino]

Please forgive my ignorance, but I don't know what to do with this information. When I looked at the color settings, my embedded matches the option I selected from that carrot at the bottom of my screen in the screenshot you sent. Am I supposed to do anything else from here or check other boxes? My exports still do not look right as is.

[Ton Frederiks]

It can mean that, when you export the file for display on web and you use something else than sRGB and the profile is not embedded (like with PNG export), the color will be wrong since the displaying app assumes sRGB.

[Submarino]

Well sRGB is what I would prefer, but the colors I'm getting are the same as my png exports, which will be cmyk

[Ton Frederiks]

PNG exports do unfortunately not get a profile attached when exported from Illustrator (known problem since 2018). But the Document profile is used when exporting.

This results in the following problem. The browser does not see a profile, assumes sRGB but should have used Display P3 if that was the document color profile. Colors are displayed wrong.

[Ton Frederiks]

Well sRGB is what I would prefer, but the colors I'm getting are the same as my png exports, which will be cmyk

By @Submarino

PNG is always RGB.

[Submarino]

I thought pngs could not export into rgb colors?

[Ton Frederiks]

• From the outset, PNGs were designed with the web in mind. Because of this, they don’t support CMYK color modes, so transferring them to print can prove difficult. 
• https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/raster/png-file.html#

[Submarino]

Well now I'm especially confused. I remember posting something similar to this a few years ago on the illustrator subreddit (now since removed becuase I was being harassed for lack of knowledge on the subject),  and I think someone then told me that it was impossible to create png images with transparencies, in rgb color profiles. 

I am just so utterly, hopelessly lost on this. There's about 5 different places to adjust color in illustrator that I knew about / you introduced me to, and I still have not even come close to correcting these colors at all. Do you think my file may just be corrupted or broken? No setting changes have made any change to the output jpg color appearance.

[Submarino]

I also attempted to create a new version of the file with just the artboard of that logo there (so it would be small enough to post here, which apparently will not send for whatever reason) and when I re-opened the original file, the proof setup was reset back to working CMYK, US Web coated instead of Monitor RGB it was on. Is it supposed to do that?

[Ton Frederiks]

You can try this:

In your Edit > Color Settings select the North America General Purpose 2 Preset

Turn all the checkboxes for Profile warnings On

Create a new document based on an Art & Illustration Preset

Open your logo file, in the Warning dialog check the Convert option.

copy the logo and paste it into your new document.

Save that file, it should export fine as JPEG, SVG and PNG (although you may want to assign the sRGB profile in Photoshop or Apple Preview app).