Wrong color reproduction in AI file in Illustrator

[Chris P. Bacon]

No matter which color profile I set in Illustrator, #f14505 which is an orange color will be shown as grey-brown in this vector AI file.

Why is this?

[Chris P. Bacon]

By the way this is a transparent shape so there should be no white shown at all.

[Ton Frederiks]

You have nothing selected.

[Chris P. Bacon]

I applied #f14505 as fill color and it should be orange. But it's brown-gray.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Same happens if I change the color after isolating the object (.ai file).

[Ton Frederiks]

Still hard to see, it is a group selected.

What is in the Layers, Appearance and Opacity panel?

[Chris P. Bacon]

The file with the shape.

It's not a group, it's  a single .ai vector.

It's on the first page.

[Doug A Roberts]

That's an InDesign file?

[Chris P. Bacon]

Sorry I will change it now.

[Monika Gause]

It's a group.

Ungroup it and make a compound path. Will be easier to handle with fills.

[Chris P. Bacon]

I ungrouped it but still doesn't work.

[Chris P. Bacon]

This is the separate .AI file.

If I click on the swatches, its fill color changes successfully, but if I define #f14505, it's just gray.

[Chris P. Bacon]

But #f14505 is s tricky color, I had issues with it in web design also.

[Doug A Roberts]

This is still just the ID file?

You can't change a linked file in InDesign.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Hi @Doug A Roberts ,

I apologize, it was the wrong link, now I updated the link, it's the AI file, not the indesign.

[Doug A Roberts]

I have no trouble changing the colour to your hex code, or any other colour:

[Chris P. Bacon]

If I click on the swatches first and THEN set #f14505, it works.

But if not, I get the grey color replacement.

So it's solved now, I just don't understand why.

[Doug A Roberts · Accepted solution]

Seems to be because it's initially defined in greyscale:

Change it to RGB first.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Ah that was it! Thanks.

[Chris P. Bacon]

[Chris P. Bacon]

Thanks for confirming I cannot change it in InDesign, then I will have to "edit original".

[Chris P. Bacon]

First priority would be to be able to change the linked AI files fill color in InDesign because that's where I work with them, and changing the color in Illustrator (edit original) is second priority, if the first doesn't work.

But now I posted the linked AI file.

[Chris P. Bacon]

Ah you meant a path group. I thought you mean an InDesign group.

Yes it's a path group but ungrouping it or making it a compound path won't change the situation with #f14505 color coming out as grey brown instead of orange, but in fact #f14505 will not get applied, it will be replaced with that brown-grey color, and I get no color incompatibility warnings or anyhting.

[Chris P. Bacon]

[Chris P. Bacon]

As the file name suggests, this was converted to .ai from .eps.