Adobe Illustrator colour mismatches between PDF and AI saves.

Jri

Member
Hi all,

I think I'm having a similar issue to this one that @ajpeacockdesign recently touched upon.

When saving out AI and PDF versions of the same CMYK Adobe Illustrator project, I am getting two very different looking documents.

When previewed, on the PDF version, a certain shade of colour will be darker than the shade next to it, but in the AI version; vice versa (in this case resulting in an ugly negative image effect).

The colours have all been assigned solid coated pantones Illustrator, and I haven't adjusted the colour management settings between the saves (one versioin being saved immediately after the other).

There is also a slight variation between what I see in the previews of the two documents and between the way the artwork looks when open in illustrator, making for an extremely frustrating work day. For the most part, the PDF version is the closer representation of what the file looks like when open in illustrator but it isn't a perfect match.

These files will ultimately be received and interpreted by someone else, so I can't afford to be unsure about how the colours are going to act when in their hands.
 
Are you embedding a colour profile in the pdf? Latest PDF specifications?

Are all programs using the same colour profiles?

I'm guessing you've done the rgb/cmyk checking etc

Windows/OS-X

Also found this
 
Hi all,

I think I'm having a similar issue to this one that @ajpeacockdesign recently touched upon.

When saving out AI and PDF versions of the same CMYK Adobe Illustrator project, I am getting two very different looking documents.

When previewed, on the PDF version, a certain shade of colour will be darker than the shade next to it, but in the AI version; vice versa (in this case resulting in an ugly negative image effect).

The colours have all been assigned solid coated pantones Illustrator, and I haven't adjusted the colour management settings between the saves (one versioin being saved immediately after the other).

There is also a slight variation between what I see in the previews of the two documents and between the way the artwork looks when open in illustrator, making for an extremely frustrating work day. For the most part, the PDF version is the closer representation of what the file looks like when open in illustrator but it isn't a perfect match.

These files will ultimately be received and interpreted by someone else, so I can't afford to be unsure about how the colours are going to act when in their hands.

Firstly - if you're using anything other than Acrobat you are going to have issues.
Secondly - Illustrator has the option to save the AI file with the added bonus of PDF in the background, this PDF file is simply a preview version of the file and not intended for output.
Thirdly - if you have AI file you don't need to save as a PDF - if you are saving as a PDF you might inadvertently be converting the colour spaces.
 
Hello Jri,
Yes, this seems to be the same issue as was recently discussed by a guy.

The problem is, the colors don't match when an AI (Adobe Illustrator) file is saved in PDF.

The point is jri, when you are working in AI, why you need to make a PDF file? Is it required by the client? The colors will heedlessly be changed in PDF file.

The one reason behind color changing is that, a color profile is being used while saving the pdf file. It can be set by clicking 'don't include color profiles.'
 
Hello Jri,

The one reason behind color changing is that, a color profile is being used while saving the pdf file. It can be set by clicking 'don't include color profiles.'

Well that's not entirely true and not really how it works.
 
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