Hi @Jroberts
Thank you for raising this. I completely understand how frustrating it is when colors look fine in Photoshop but appear flat or washed out when opened or printed through Acrobat. Let me clarify what’s happening and how you can fix it.
Here is what I think is happening:
The issue comes from the way the PDF was created:
Your images are in DeviceRGB without an embedded ICC color profile.
Acrobat (and most PDF viewers) will then assume sRGB by default, which explains the washed-out look.
Photoshop lets you assign AdobeRGB manually, which is why it looks correct when you export to JPEG.
When you tried Preflight → Convert Colors, Acrobat didn’t change the appearance because there was no ICC profile to convert from. The greyed-out “Convert Colors to Output Intent” is expected in this case — Acrobat will only let you either convert to a chosen profile or to the output intent, not both at the same time.
What you can do instead:
Open Preflight (Fixups) in Acrobat.
Create or use an existing fixup called “Assign ICC profile” and apply AdobeRGB to all DeviceRGB objects.
(Optional) If you need a different final color space (e.g., CMYK for printing), you can then run Convert Colors after step 2.
This way, your PDF objects will have AdobeRGB embedded, and printing should match what you saw in Photoshop.
Let me know how this works for you.
How to Assign AdobeRGB ICC Profile in Acrobat Preflight
1. Open Preflight
Go to Tools > Print Production > Preflight.
2. Switch to Fixups
In the Preflight dialog, click the wrench icon (top left) to open Fixups.
3. Search for “Assign ICC profile”
In the search box, type: assign icc
You should see something like “Assign ICC profile” under Color spaces, spot colors, inks.
4. Edit (if needed)
Select it, then click the spanner/pencil icon to edit.
In the dropdown, choose AdobeRGB (1998) as the profile.
5. Run the Fixup
Click Fix (bottom right).
Acrobat will process the PDF and embed AdobeRGB into all DeviceRGB objects.
6. Verify
Go to Print Production > Output Preview.
Hover over objects in your PDF — they should now display AdobeRGB (1998) instead of DeviceRGB.
After this, your colors should look closer to Photoshop and print as expected.
If you later need CMYK, you can then safely use Convert Colors because Acrobat now knows the correct source profile.
Best regards, Tariq | Adobe Community Team | Meet Acrobat Studio
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