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CMYK question

GVP

New Member
Greetings! Looking for an explanation to better understand. A client sent me a pdf file where the background is black. If I place into Illustrator (CS4) and use the eyedropper, it shows as 75/68/67/90 - if I import into either Photoshop as a CMYK image, or into Coreldraw, the eyedropper shows 40/30/30/100 (which is what it should be) Any idea why reading the file into Illustrator is showing a different mix? Is there something I need to change? I would like to rely on Illustrator to show the correct color.
 

untitled

New Member
Before you place your file are you making sure your color mode is in CMYK? File -> Document Color Mode -> CMYK. By the sounds of it you are trying to place it in when the document is set for RGB.
 

unclebun

Active Member
Although I have Illustrator, I hardly use it. But I'd bet that it's in your color management settings in Illustrator. it's changing the color profile as it imports the file.
 

GVP

New Member
Before you place your file are you making sure your color mode is in CMYK? File -> Document Color Mode -> CMYK. By the sounds of it you are trying to place it in when the document is set for RGB.

Nope, the document was set to CMYK before placing - first thing I checked.
 

GVP

New Member
Although I have Illustrator, I hardly use it. But I'd bet that it's in your color management settings in Illustrator. it's changing the color profile as it imports the file.

Hmmm... I can't see how to adjust color management when opening or placing a file - only when outputting it...
 

myront

CorelDRAW is best
I used to use a combination of all 4 colors (C45 M45 Y45 K100) to produce a "rich" black. I've found that R0 G0 B0 produces an even "richer" black than that though.
 

JPR-5690

New Member
Time to get nerdy :cool:

It has to do with a few factors:
1) how the original file was made
2) what program you’re using to open it
3) what your specific color management settings are in your Adobe suite.

Corel (like Illustrator) is a vector based program. Photoshop is a raster based program. The two are fundamentally and completely different in how they handle image data - including how they interpret color.

Photoshop is MUCH more powerful in terms of color management. The way that Photoshop is set up by default (unless you've changed your advanced color management settings) is to take whatever file you open and not only rasterize it, but convert it to a specific color space. Meaning even if you have vector image you made in Corel with a pure black (100% of only K), Photoshop will most likely display that black as a combination similar to what you are seeing (a "build", or "rich black"). It can be even more confusing because depending on your output settings, these numbers will be different after you save the file.

Illustrator (and probably Corel) don't do nearly the same amount of color management, especially if you're just placing the file as opposed to opening the original. You will never get an accurate color reading using the eye dropper tool on a placed image in Illustrator because technically it's not sampling the file itself - it's sampling a preview of the original file. Placing a file inside another document is like making a shortcut on your desktop - it's only an alias, or a link to the original location.

Like ColorCrest mentioned, it almost doesn't matter because your RIP is going to change these color builds, so after you finish reading my dissertation you can probably just chose to not worry about all of this unless you're experiencing a specific color problem.

Feel free to dm me, I went to school for way to long studying this stuff and would be happy to make all those years (and debt) useful to somebody :)
 

shoresigns

New Member
Try opening it in Illustrator instead of placing it.
No, opening or placing - eyedropper reads the same

This isn't how Illustrator behaves. If you open the file (as opposed to placing it) and you don't get any warnings about colour profiles, you should get 40-30-30-100 with the eyedropper. Can you show us the file? Either something's fishy with your file, or your ancient version of Illustrator doesn't have proper colour management.
 

myront

CorelDRAW is best
In Corel very rarely does anyone import/place a native cdr file. Always open it. As for an eps or pdf it's imported/placed without any color correcting. You can "link" an an image as opposed to straight import but I never do that. Importing a raster image also does not alter the colors. It may look different on different monitors and a designer may alter as they see fit but...
Output is a different story altogether.
 

shahidmqamar

New Member
Greetings! Looking for an explanation to better understand. A client sent me a pdf file where the background is black. If I place into Illustrator (CS4) and use the eyedropper, it shows as 75/68/67/90 - if I import into either Photoshop as a CMYK image, or into Coreldraw, the eyedropper shows 40/30/30/100 (which is what it should be) Any idea why reading the file into Illustrator is showing a different mix? Is there something I need to change? I would like to rely on Illustrator to show the correct color.
This is due to the icc profile used by software.photoshop,illustrator or even rip softwares use icc profiles to create colours.different icc profiles behave differently,they will take combinations from original file and create their own combinations.Kindly see if you are using same icc profile in both softwares.hope this explains the reason of different percentages of cmyk in different softwares.
 
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