illustrator and photoshop colors don't match

[tony_walton@adobeforums.com]

I am using Illustrator9 and photoshop7 CM on Cmyk workflow.
exact same color in photoshop does not look even close with the same color in Illustator. and when I put them in IDcs photoshop looks good but
Illustrator looks even more different? In Design same settings. Help job needs to go to press asap.

[Jacob_Bugge@adobeforums.com]

Tony, have you read the topic Placing Image in Illustrator seem darker, latest post (right now Mar 30), about a possible mismatch in colour management?

[tony_walton@adobeforums.com]

Yes I saw those but the Illustrator image is placed in IDCS
all the profiles are the same the actual cmyk numbers are the
same but it is a different color actually lighter tone. I havent had this kind of problem in years of using Adobe products. Lots of press print work. I must be missing something.

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Tony,

Have you saved your colour settings to a .CSF file and Loaded that same file
in to all 3 applications? That's what you need to do to get consistent
colour across the 3 apps.

[Narayan_Raum@adobeforums.com]

I don't understand how they can print differently when you are using the exact same CMYK numbers. For example, I setup an InDesign file with three blue boxes.

1) Illustrator File placed in InDesign
2) Photoshop File placed in InDesign
3) Box created in InDesign itself

I export to CMYK PDF and print it out on a CMYK printer. The Illustrator and Indesign colors match, but the Photoshop blue looks purple.

Can you give a little more info on how to save colour settings to a .CSF file? Thanks.

[Anna_Genova@adobeforums.com]

I have Illustrator CMYK color (0, 2,20,2), neeed to use the same CMYK color in InDesign file, when i print the artwork color don't really match. Illustrator color is visibly lighter than ID color. Any ideas what I should do?

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Anna,

What versions of Illustrator and ID?

Assuming Illustrator 9 or later and ID2.0 or later, from Illustrator's
Edit>Colour Settings d/box SAVE your colour settings to a colour settings
file (.CSF)

From ID's Edit>Colour Settings d/box LOAD the CSF file you just saved. You
can now be sure both applications are using the same colour settings.

[Anna_Genova@adobeforums.com]

I have Illustrator 10, InDesign 2 .
I did what you suggested but the color was still different when I printed it. The Illustrator is lighter then InDesign.

[Narayan_Raum@adobeforums.com]

You know, believe it or not, this does not work. At least not for me. Here's my scenario, hopefully one of you Gurus can help me out.

I opened up 3 applications on my Macintosh OS 10.3 Panther. Applications are Indesign CS, Illustrator CS, Photoshop CS.

I created a .CSF file from Illustrator using the settings: US Prepress Defaults, no Advanced.
I saved this file, and loaded it into InDesign CS and Photoshop CS.

Next I created a square PSD file in Photoshop with the following values: C10 M15 Y60 B5
Then I created the same shape in Illustrator EPS format with same values.
Then I created a new InDesign file, and placed these two files in the document. Then in InDesign, I created a third square with the same values. I lined them all up against eachother, and exported a PDF using the PDF X-3 Preset.

Shipped the PDF over to a windows machine and printed to a CMYK printer from Acrobat.
The Illustrator EPS and the InDesign Squares match up, but the Photoshop file is much lighter.

What do you suggest?

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Narayan,

Following your workflow, (but using my own .CSF - AdobeRGB(1998), Euroscale
Coated V2, Gray Gamma 2.2, d/g 20%, Relative Colormetric and ACE) the only
time I can detect any difference is if opening the PDF as an RGB document in
Photoshop - then I do see/measure slightly lighter colour from the
Photoshop-originated area, but the ID and Illustrator created swatches are
identical (which is what Anna was asking about)

[Faith Wyatt]

I was having this same problem. The cmyk values look completely different from photoshop to illustrator. I am working on CS5. If you go to edit > color settings in each program and then open Adobe Bridge it will automatically synch the color settings on everything.

[alex]

You have to close all CS apps, then open the Bridge and sincronize the color management.