Illustrator file placed in Photoshop shifts colors. Both files have same color profile.

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
May 15, 2024
2 replies
1648 views

This is an extremely frustrating issue. I'm placing an AI file into a PSD file and the colors shift subtley. Both files share the same Display P3 color profile and are synced via Bridge. At my work we have experienced this issue numerous times and we are getting complaints from our client about it. These programs are 30+ years old and there should be no issue placing an AI file into a PSD. I have tried numerous troubleshooting steps to no avail. The only solution I have come up with is to export the AI file to a generic SVG web vector format. That solved the color shift issue and allowed the file to still be an editable vector opening in AI.

Adobe, please fix this issue. I'm using the latest versions of both programs.

The native files should not be color shifting.

macOS

M

mel31877633zuyj

Participant

try to use this setting in illustrator before you drag your ai files to psd

D Fosse

Community Expert

Please show screenshots.

Just to be sure, since you say "synced via Bridge" (which is irrelevant): Do both files have the same color profile embedded? Not working spaces, but embedded profile.

C

Chris33370797xpalAuthor

Participant

Both files have the same Display P3 color profile assigned.

Both documents were created on my computer using the same Display P3
working space profile and both files have had the same Display P3 profile
manually assigned as well. The colors were sampled before and after. We've
done numerous troubleshooting tests.

Copying and pasting the AI file into a PSD makes the colors shift slightly.
The color shift is even more pronounced when dragging and dropping the AI
file into a PSD.

For example, a yellow color, fdf551, will shift to fcf551 when the AI art
is copied and pasted into the PSD.

The same fdf551 color will shift more dramatically to f3e955 when the AI
file dragged and dropped into a PSD.

All of these files are using the same profile and were created on the same
computer with the same working color space assigned across the
Adobe programs. The profiles have been manually assigned as well as a test.

This is also happening to my coworker on his computer with files he is
creating independently.

We are both using the latest versions of the Adobe products.

Saving the AI file as an SVG and placing it in the PSD works to retain the
correct color values. This should also work with the native AI format, but
it does not. That is the issue.

C

Chris33370797xpalAuthor

Participant

OK, those small differences sound like they could be rounding errors. Agreed, it shouldn't happen. I'll do some tests here later to see if I can reproduce. Is the master PSD file 16 or 8 bit color depth?

That said, I have to make some general remarks here, because I'm a little concerned about your procedures. They can potentially cause problems.

Assigning profiles won't do any good if it's not right to begin with, or if the file is untagged (doesn't have a profile). That will only make it worse. What you need to do is keep track of the embedded profile from the start. You do that here:

If the profile isn't what you want, you convert, not assign. The working space is not important. The embedded profile, whatever it is, will always override the working space.

Also, I'm very skeptical to the current trend in the Mac community to use Display P3 everywhere. If you're also using the same Display P3 as monitor profile, which is what it's intended for, you're actually disabling and turning off all display color management. The thing is, if the source and destination profiles are identical, that's a "null transform". It's all cancelled out. Nothing is converted, no change at all, which is the definition of no color management.

At this point, it doesn't even matter what the profile is. It could be anything - as long as they're the same, there is no color management. Display P3 to Display P3 behaves exactly the same way as ProPhoto to ProPhoto, or sRGB to sRGB.

Now you probably begin to see the danger. This will all look perfectly fine as long as you're inside the Apple bubble, with fellow Apple users. But move outside it, and all kinds of things can happen, because you've all been working without color management. You can drop embedding the profile, and no Mac user will notice it. But others will!

Display P3 is a monitor profile. Generic, but very widely used instead of a calibrator. It wasn't intended as a standard RGB profile, but that's how it's used now.

Hi.

Thanks for addressing this.

This PSD file is 8 bit.
However, the issue also happens when I place the AI file into 16 bit PSD
files.

We do save out the AI files in EPS format for delivery. But, for this we
have tried several different formats and profiles for copy and pasting and
drag and drop into PSDs to try to sort this out.

We are required to use the Display P3 profile by our client for all of our
creative work.
All of their templates utilize that profile. It is part of their workflow.
All I can say is that it is a very large multinational corporation. I can
only presume that they use that profile for a valid reason.

Regardless, we are working on Macs and basically locked into using that
profile. There is no way around it. We're just trying to get our work done
correctly and delivered with no issues.

I'm hoping you can find a solution for us to use the native AI files
instead of exporting our AI files to SVG.

Thank you.

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