ai file from pc to mac gives color distortion

[Jan-Willem_van_Dronkelaar@adobeforums.com]

When transfering ai files from the pc to the mac platform colors change the moment i save the files again as a mac ai. Im not changing anything after opening the files. I just open and save them. The files are in cmyk color mode as i open them. Colormanagement was set to illustrator 6.0 emulation. We tried different settings including setting color management off.

After reopening the files the colors have been changed. Red for example has changed from 0,100,100,0 to something really close but not the same. Sometimes colors even get added (a bit of cyan for example). Any idea what causes this and how we could avoid it happening in the future?

Any pointers are much appreciated.

Jan-Willem van Dronkelaar

[Jacob_Bugge@adobeforums.com]

Jan-Willem,

It sounds like a RGB/CMYK issue. Are you sure the document was not created in RGB mode originally and changed to CMYK afterwards?

As long as the document is in RGB mode, the colours you create will be based on RGB and remain so, even if you define them as CMYK, and even if you change the document mode to CMYK afterwards.

And if that is the case, the document will open in CMYK mode, but your CMYK colour will change to something strange when you click on it.

[Dimitar_Zhekov@adobeforums.com]

This is a Color Management issue. Turn color management off, then restart Illustrator. Without restarting it will now work...

[Jan-Willem_van_Dronkelaar@adobeforums.com]

Thank you for replying. Jacob, this is what we thought of initially aswell. I am not the one who created the document but ive checked it and all colors that are in the document are in cmyk. The document colormode is set to cmyk also. Correct me if im wrong but doesnt this mean that the file is absolutely 'clean' colorwise?

Dimitar, we thought it would be a colormanagement related problem aswell. In fact we still do. We tried to set colormanagement off and restart illustrator but it didnt yield the expected results. Also, we noticed illustrator doesnt seem to remember the last applied setting. Does this mean that illustrator is corrupt?

[Jacob_Bugge@adobeforums.com]

Jan-Willem, this has been delayed, so I hope you are still looking for an answer.

The answer about cleanness is no. The cleanness depends entirely on how the file was created. Try this yourself:

1) Make a file (Untitled-1) with CtrlN, choosing RGB as Colour mode, and close with CtrlW.

Nothing is saved, you have just made sure Illy assumes the next document will be in RGB mode, and this is easily overlooked when you make the next document.

2) Make a new file (Untitled-2) with CtrlN, switch Color to CMYK (in the Color/Attributes window), make a rectangle and fill it with Magenta 100, make a second rectangle and fill it with white C=M=Y=K=0, choose File>Document color mode>CMYK, and close with CtrlW; answer Yes to saving changes.

Now you have a document saved in CMYK format, and nothing warns you. But:

3) Open Untitled-2 with CtrlO, in CMYK mode, and see the distortion of the colour when you select the rectangle.

Illy remembers the colour mode when you made the colour. If you change the document colour mode to CMYK before you fill the first rectangle in 2), 3) will show that you have the colour you intended. If you do not make the white rectangle before changing the colour mode, you will see the colour distortion before you close the document.

The reason is that when you think you make a CMYK colour, and you are in RGB mode, Illy sees it, and keeps it, as the closest RGB equivalent; so when you open it in CMYK mode you get the closest CMYK equivalent of the closest RGB equivalent of the colour you intended. The difference irepresents the inherent different between RGB and CMYK.

Whoever made the file may have opened the file more than once, and, getting tired of switching to CMYK, made the change of colour mode without realizing that everything up to then was actually made in RGB.