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.

[Submarino]

Should I save the original logo file as an svg so it can open properly? I had been just dragging it from another file and dropping it into this new file. I assume it won't work the same way doing that.

[Ton Frederiks]

I opened the PDF you posted here in Illustrator, but it is better to use the original Illustrator file.

[Submarino]

Hmm. I tried that. It definitely has colors that are more vibrant than some of my recent exports, but still not the vibrant colors I was getting on the original file. 

I am now wondering if the Monitor RGB proof setup I have selected, creates colors that are just unatainable through illustrator in general. Have you placed your version of my pdf in that setting? Are you seeing the sort of vibrancy I am describing? Obviously impossible to know over this board, but I guess the easiest way to know is if you can recreate my settings. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Your monitor Display P3 has a larger color gamut than sRGB, That's why it looks duller when using an sRGB profile. But most of the rest of the world does not have such a monitor and will never be able to see the colors like you do. You cannot change that. You can compare both profiles in the ColorSync Utility app.

[Submarino]

Okay. Let me see if this makes sense to you. CMYK and RGB are obviously two different color formats that generally have two different applications. On Illustrator, you can adjust the settings on your file to get a truer interpretation of the colors you will export to one of those two application processes.

Additionally, there are other color settings, that can adapt to different monitor styles and capabilities, so those rgb or cmyk colors represented can move one way or another so the specific monitor you're using can be dialed in properly. What I've used in my monitor srgb setting, is essentially a very strong gamut color profile that heavily saturates the colors on screen for use in what I'd assume are monitors that lean duller and therefore get balanced accurately. Because my physical monitor does not require this balancing, I've actually overbalanced my color profiles and created a visual profile on screen that is impossible to recreate? Does that sound right based on what you've relayed?

The only issue I have with this logic, is the fact that my pdfs ARE exporting with that saturated color profile, but maybe output on pdf is not the same as image file logic?

[Monika Gause]

I think you might benefit from learning color management. There are courses on LinkedIn Learning and you can have a 3 month LinkedIn Pro membership with your Creative Cloud subscription for free which includes LinkedIn Learning. What you have done to your monitor does not sound like a reliable color workflow. 

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a7737016 

[Submarino]

This comes off extremely condescending to suggest I should take a course in color management that I'd need to pay for, instead of just helping me understand if my train of thought is accurate or not. 

I have no problem with watching videos on the subject (which I've already started) but I pay enough in an adobe subscription alone for you to gatekeep information through an additional paywall. I really don't think what I've asked or brought up is out of your ability to provide insight. Is there a reason for this?

[Monika Gause]

course in color management that I'd need to pay for

By @Submarino

As I said: 3 months of LinkedIn is included in your Creative Cloud subscription.

[Submarino]

1. I would be using a 3 month trial period to take this course. That isn't something that comes included with my subscription for free forever. If I wanted to use this trial later on, or on anything else, I would not have access to that offer any longer.

2. Through my communications and back and forth with Ton (which I greatly appreciated from them) I assumed I was starting to understand the issues I've had at hand between what I was seeing on screen in file and what I was getting as an output from that file, so I wrote a consensus of what I thought was going on, to see if I was on the right track. Hoping for either, "yes this is closer to understanding what's going on" or "no this is not exactly what is happening". You chose to do neither, and decided it was best not to tell me anything, and use my limited offer from linkedin to take a course on essentially, color theory. Which I for the most part already know as a career designer and is all readily available on youtube. 

This is why your reply was condescending.

[Ton Frederiks]

I agree with Monika, you may want to follow some color management training on LinkedIn

Here are some additional pages with information:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/color.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/keeping-colors-consistent.html

[Submarino]

You linked me a page on the basics of the differences in CMYK and RGB. I have a degree in design and did a whole semester on color theory. This does not relate to the problem I've had at hand.

[Ton Frederiks]

I am sorry, but after 33 replies on your post, I don't think we have made much progress and some of your answers gave the impression that it would be a good idea to refresh your color knowledge with some, as Monika mentioned Free, training.

[Submarino]

I appreciate the feedback. This is why I asked in my last reply, if any of my thoughts and understandings of the situation currently made sense or were still off base. Telling me to pay to take courses on the subject without first letting me know if I was still off track or at least understanding the issues at hand, at all, seems like you're just shoo-ing me away because you are just tired of dealing with me. Guess that's the case. 

[Ton Frederiks]

Well, actually, your last answer gave the impression that you were still off track. That's why I agreed with the suggestion to take a free course in Color Management. This is not the place to explain all the detailed workings of a complicated subject as Color Management.