Please help! Colors keep changing on me

[laney_liner@adobeforums.com]

I am using Illustrator CS and when I select a black and then reopen the file, the black is no longer pure black and is a combination of CMYK. The same thing happens with Magenta. Is there something that I need to do to ensure the that my colors don't change on me?

Thanks.

[lee_vickers@adobeforums.com]

Is the file an RGB one? Check the document colour settings (File/Document Colour Mode).

[laney_liner@adobeforums.com]

The file is CMYK. Any other ideas? Thanks for your help.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

How are you saving the file? If you're saving as Web-optimized pdf, for instane your colors will change to RBG

[laney_liner@adobeforums.com]

I am normal doing the file save. What is interesting is I will click on pure black in the swatch palette and then when I go to click on the image again that I changed to pure black, it changes. This happens before I even go to save the file. Do you think this is a bug in the program and maybe I should reinstall. Or, should I dump some of my preferences? Thanks.

[jonf@adobeforums.com]

When you say the file is cmyk, you really mean the document color mode has been set to cmyk, correct? Not that the color palette has cmyk set as the default color definition? What you describe sounds suspiciously like what would happen if your document color mode is set as rgb, your palette colors are cmyk, and your color settings are set to colorsynch workflow.

[Dee Holmes]

I agree with jonf, you have to be in RGB mode. Go to file/document color mode. Or at the top of your screen the bar should say what color mode you're in. (Like at the top of this screen it says Adobe Forums - Please help!)

[Aminosity]

I just wanted to let you know, you saved me hours more of frustration.
Thankyou all.

[atinyc]

A thousand thank yous! Burning the midnight oil trying to prepare a mechanical and I was having the same issue. Was going bonkers. Just changed from RGB to CMYK mode and everything's all better. So grateful for your thread and everyone's helpful replies.

[Unregistered]

Please help! Colors keep changing on me