Adobe Illustrator Export to JPEG (*.JPG) vs ICC Color Profiles vs Behance

Question

Hi,
I work with Adobe Illustrator CC 2014. When I export my projects into *.JPG format (using both: 'Adobe Illustrator > File > Export' and 'Adobe Illustrator > File > Save for Web') I use ‘Embed ICC’ profile option. Every common image viewer I use (including web browsers and Adobe Bridge) respects those color settings and displays exactly what has been embedded. But when posting on Behance, my color settings are converted into something else! The only solution is to place my Adobe Illustrator file into a new Adobe Photoshop document , then export it into .JPG (with embedded color settings) and then post it to Behance. With this workaround my colors look pretty correct.
Did someone experience the same and  could explain why Behance doesn’t respect the Adobe Illustrator export with embedded ICC profile settings?
one thing more – even if my *.JPG produced with Adobe Photoshop (the correct one)  is displayed correctly, the cover photo (taken from the original) is still converted into different (Behance’s default??) color space. I believe this shouldn’t work this way. Is there any workaround to this? Is there any way my covers (miniatures) display the 'true' colors?
Please advise
Best Regards,
Pawel Kuc
ccmutants.com

Answer 1

ok. I give up. It seems that Adobe Illustrator can export only to the JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) and Behence doesn’t fully support this format (for example it cannot read its icc color data correctly):
(JPEG) Formally, the EXIF and JFIF standards are incompatible. This is because both specify that their particular application segment (APP0 for JFIF, APP1 for Exif) must be the first in the image file. In practice, many programs and digital cameras produce files with both application segments included. This will not affect the image decoding for most decoders, but poorly designed JFIF or Exif parsers may not recognize the file properly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_File_Interchange_Format#Exif_comparison)
I’ve analyzed my files using JPEGsnoop 1.6.1 (really cool app by Calvin Hass, http://www.impulseadventure.com/photo/) and here is what I’ve found:
A) *.jpg produced with Adobe Illustrator > File > Export > JPEG > ICC profile embedded:
*** Marker: SOI (xFFD8) ***
OFFSET: 0x00000000
*** Marker: APP0 (xFFE0) ***
OFFSET: 0x00000002
length     = 16
identifier = [JFIF]
version    = [1.2]
density    = 72 x 72 DPI (dots per inch)
thumbnail  = 0 x 0
B) *.jpg produced with Adobe Illustrator > File > Save For Web > JPEG > ICC profile embedded:
*** Marker: SOI (xFFD8) ***
OFFSET: 0x00000000
*** Marker: APP0 (xFFE0) ***
OFFSET: 0x00000002
length     = 16
identifier = [JFIF]
version    = [1.2]
density    = 100 x 100 (aspect ratio)
thumbnail  = 0 x 0
C) *.jpg produced with Adobe Photoshop > File > Save As > JPEG > ICC Profile embedded
*** Marker: SOI (xFFD8) ***
OFFSET: 0x00000000
*** Marker: APP1 (xFFE1) ***
OFFSET: 0x00000002
length          = 1320
Identifier      = [Exif]
Identifier TIFF = 0x[4D4D002A 00000008]
Endian          = Motorola (big)
TAG Mark x002A  = 0x002A
EXIF IFD0 @ Absolute 0x00000014
Dir Length = 0x0007
[Orientation ] = Row 0: top, Col 0: left
[XResolution ] = 720000/10000
[YResolution ] = 720000/10000
[ResolutionUnit ] = Inch
[Software ] = "Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Windows)"
[DateTime ] = "2014:08:02 17:21:15"
[ExifOffset ] = @ 0x00A8
Offset to Next IFD = 0x000000D4
EXIF IFD1 @ Absolute 0x000000E0
Dir Length = 0x0006
[Compression ] = JPEG
[XResolution ] = 72/1
[YResolution ] = 72/1
[ResolutionUnit ] = Inch
[JpegIFOffset ] = @ +0x0132 = @ 0x013E
[JpegIFByteCount ] = 1006
Offset to Next IFD = 0x00000000
EXIF SubIFD @ Absolute 0x000000B4
Dir Length = 0x0003
[ColorSpace ] = sRGB
[ExifImageWidth ] = 200
[ExifImageHeight ] = 200
So unfortunately the only option to produce the EXIF JPEG from an Adobe Illustrator project is to: Export *.ai file to JPEG (under Adobe Illustrator) > go to Photoshop > Create new project > Paste the *.jpg > and Sava As JPEG with icc embedded.