RGB images in Illustrator

Hey people,
I have the following problem: I have a RGB image from photoshop (its an image from a microscope, basically black background with red and blue contours of a cell) and I copy/pasted this image to a RGB document in Illustrator. The image itself is rectangular, but I want to have it square. So, I created a square black box (black in this case was RGB black: R=0 G=0 B=0) and placed it behind my image.
On my screen it always looks as it should be, no differences in the the black colors of the microscopy image and the black object of Illustrator. Both in the Illustrator file and after exporting it as a .pdf-file, there's no difference.
However, when I print the file with a color laser printer (it's a HP printer, can't specify it more, sorry for that), my image is like "real black" and the square box behind is more "greyish"...Changing the color profiles in the Illustrator file (from RGB to CMYK in Data-->Document color mode --> CMYK) or in the options when I export the pdf file didn't help, the files still look good on the screen, not on the printed paper. If there's any other way to solve it, I would be pleased to have the image not in the CMYK mode, because the contrast and general appearance of the images is worse in the CMYK profile.
I hope some of you guys can help me! It's incredibly important to solve that problem, because my images finally gonna get published, so I would really appreciate any help!
Best,
The_Bacillus_Guy

Wow, thank you for the incredibly fast responses!!!
@CHMprepress: I cannot adjust the image, it's for a scientific publication and the images itself have to be shown with as less modifications as possible!
@steve fairbairn: I've just measured the different shades of black and in both Photoshop and Illustrator. Both say it's: R=0 G=0 B=0. I also checked the color of the pasted image in Illustrator. It's all the same...
@badchess: The color settings are the same in both files. I basically used the pre-setting "North America General Purpose 2"
RGB: sRGB IEC61966-2.1
CMYK: U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2
Or do you think I have to change any of the other options?
Changing the appearance of black in the preferences doesn't help either...
Could it also be a problem of the printer?

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My RGB colors are turning to cmyk while bringing image from illustrator or photoshop. Why? Removing the image from that page bright RGB colors are back.. hmm

My RGB colors are turning to cmyk while bringing image from illustrator or photoshop. Why?
Removing the image from that page bright RGB colors are back.. hmm

Edit > Transparency Blend Space > Document RGB

CS2 Convert RGB Images to CMYK Within Illustrator

Hey everyone. I desparately need some help here. I designed a file in Illustator CS2 and my file had images within it. I took it to a professional printer and he said my images needed to be converted from RGB to CMYK to print properly. The printer had CS4 and he said to change the colours you click on Edit -> then Colours, which in turn allowed him to change the pictures format from RGB to CMYK. I only have CS2 and when he told me to select Edit and then Colours, well CS2 does not have that. It's something completely different.
If someone out there knows how to change the picture files from RGB to CMYK "within" Illustrator CS2 could you please tell me how as Adobe's phone support only deals with the most current version.
Any help you can provide me with, would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Julie

>This is for my benefit as I have just purchased a colour laser printer and wanted to be able to print something proper like the professional printer.
Unless you have a PostScript RIP for your laser printer (a separate driver provided either by your printer manufacturer or a third party) you cannot proof CMYK documents directly. Lacking a PostScript RIP, you can still get a pretty good idea if you have Acrobat. Print to PDF using settings that convert to, say, sRGB... then, print that PDF document on your laser printer (using its native non-PostScript driver).
For your older documents, if your placed RGB images are embedded (rather than linked), you can try Philip's suggestion. It shouldn't matter, though. Illustrator should do the necessary space conversions at print-time.
If the images are linked, I would suggest you convert them to CMYK in Photoshop. I'm sorry, but I do not know of a way to do the same thing within Illustrator (v12 aka CS2).

Choppy Blocky Images in Illustrator - HELP

When I open a high resolution image in Ai they look somewhat distorted and choppy. They are jpeg files that I am placing in order to envelope distort onto a mesh. For some reason any bitmap image I open with Ai looks like this. However, when I open the same image with Acrobat Pro or Ps the image looks perfect. Images are RGB in both apps.
Image in Ps or Acrobat Image in Illustrator
There most be something in Illustrator that is causing this. Images are being embedded and cannot be linked since they need to be distorted. I am runnung CS6 on Intel iMac Maveriks
If anyone can help I would be truly greatful!
Thanks in advance

Illustrator does not have as accurate a preview for bitmapped graphics. Usually the image jsut looks softer. Is the image scaled a large amount?
I suggest you print this, or do a save for web and view at 100% in photoshop.
I see your images are screenshot, cold you post the oriignal image, and tell us if the image looks bad prior to embedding & envelope distorting. You can also envelope distort or warp in photoshop, which I would recomend, unless you absolutley need to use make with top object.

Color differences between high and low res images in Illustrator pdfs

OK, I'm creating a tradeshow graphic for a client. I designed the whole thing in Illlustrator CS6. But for the proof, I used a low res image of the sky (before we purchased it). Everyone was happy. It was a low-res RGB image imported into Illustrator, then the whole thing was exported as a pdf.
Once they approved it, I purchased the high res image. RGB. Same image... just high res. I popped it into the Illustrator file and exported it in exactly the same way. But now, the image looks much more purple. The low res pdf showed it as much brighter, lighter blue.
My client prefers the lighter blue. When I look at the two images in Photoshop, they look the same (in terms of color).
So... should I be worred? Why is there such a color difference? Thanks!
I'm attaching jpgs of the pdfs just to show you the color differences.
Julie

Print Graphics: File >> Document Color Mode CMYK.
Digital Graphics: File >> Document Color Mode RGB.
The PDF presets in Illusttrator will generate CMYK PDFs or PDFs in the colorpsace Illustrator is set to, (except for smallest file size which makes RGB PDFs).
Firsst make sure you are in the correct colorspace in Illustrator before proceeding, adn make your imaeg CMYK if you are for example doing a banner for tradeshow. Backlit graphics are the only print graphics exception and should be RGB because Lambda printers actaully are native RGB.
Open your lo and hi res in Phoothsop and compare the color values by watching the info aplette in Photoshop.
When generating PDFs keep in minds that and RGB PDFs have different color than a CMYK PDF.

Images from Illustrator to DW don't show

I resisted moving away from CS2 and GoLive for a long time, but finally threw in the towel and recently bought CS4 web premium. GoLive was like your favorite pair of old jeans you wore on a Saturday morning [sigh].. Anyway.
Photoshop was always my preferred application for creating images for use on my web sites I suppose since I was too lazy to learn Illustrator. Thought I should actually use Illustrator and I watched hours of lynda.com training (and DW training.) I'm still taking baby steps with both, but I am tenacious and will learn both.
I worked up a a banner image for a web site overhaul I'm doing in Illustrator and saved it 'For web' as a gif, then as a jpeg. Inserted the image into DW (as a gif, then as a jpeg) and then to my astonshment I could not view the page's image in Live View or in a browser. I tried an old image I had laying around and it worked so there is something I'm not doing right I suppose in Illustrator. I can preview the image in Illustrator in the save for web dialog box and it displays okay on a browser page.
I've tried to rasterize it, import it into Photoshop and then save for web, and nothing works for me to have it display in a DW page. Frankly I'm not sure if this is an Illustrator issue, a DW issue, a problem between the seat and the keyboard, or what. I'm not even sure if the DW community will claim this as a DW problem but I thought I would start here first.
Many thanks from a GoLive refugee

Thanks guys for jumping in to help ...
Yup - good-to-go on defining a site, images directory and all that stuff. I am creating an RGB image at 72 ppi in Illustrator. Forgot about Export in Illustrator, tried exporting as a PSD, opening up in Photoshop and then saving as a gif, then inserting into the DW page. Still couldn't see the image
Then I created a simple graphic in Photoshop, saved as a gif in the images directory of my site, inserted it in the page I have been working with and it worked as expected. This is weirding me out.
Apparently there is no issue with DW, but something I don't understand about Illustrator. I'll mess around some more and maybe post on the Illustrator forum. Don't know if my platform is relevant or not but I'm running W7 Professional 64 bit.
When I get this issue worked out, I'm sure I'll be back with some DW questions as I get more into my site creation.
Regards - John
PS - I have Fireworks, so maybe I'll see what that can do for me for graphics...

Exporting rather large image in Illustrator CS5...

Lets just say I wanted to export an image from Illustrator CS5
What I want would be 3000px², with 300ppi, and level 7 detail, jpeg. (I would work with PNG ussually, but that's a whole nother issue)
My computer specs
i7, quad core
3.2 GHz
8gb ram
RAID 0 HDDs
So when I try to export the image, it tells me that I have insufficient memory. I can produce 150ppi just fine but dammit, if I can't do 300ppi with my build, what computer can? (I do, however, understand that 3000px² is rather large)
Thanks for you time

Do I understand you correctly, your document is 3000x3000 pixels in dimension, that is the size of your artboard or bounding box of the art?
A nd you are exporting it as jpeg at 300ppi? Then what is the color mode of the document, RGB or CMYK?

Change RGB images in PDF to CMYK

I'm using Acrobat 8 Pro.
I've received several PDFs (one-page ads) that contain RGB images. What's the best way to convert them to CMYK?
I know how to do the edit image thing that opens the image in Photoshop, but I can't figure out how to get the "edited" image back into the PDF after I convert it to CMYK in PS.
Or is there an easier way? When I get a PDF with spot colors, I just go into the ink manager thing and convert all spots to process. Anything similar for converting RGB?
TIA,
Marlene

Given you have Acrobat 8 Pro you shouldn't be doing such a complicated sequence of steps...
Instead, either
- use the (interactive) color convert feature (Advanced/Print production/Convert colors...)
- or try Preflight (Advanced/Preflight...) which beginning with Acorbat 8 offers "fixups" - with which many things can be achieved, among others also color conversion (same underlying 'machine' as the aforementioned "convert colors" - but with the possibility to save and reuse configurations for the conversion).
- same as before but even go a step towards automation: set up a batch sequence, and process a whole folder with PDFs; or create a Droplet in Preflight, and drag'n drop your PDFs onto the droplet.
Olaf Druemmer

Overprint Preview, RGB, Image Resolution Acrobat v9

I recently started using Acrobat 9. There is 2 things I'm looking in V9.
1- Overprint Preview
2- All image resolutions in a HiRes pdf. I see a custom check profile called "resolution of color & grayscale images is between..." but I want image resolution is ...
3- Flag any RGB images used.
ThankYou

I'm sorry what I mean if a pdf have 35 images I would to see the image resolution of all of them independently if they are 72 or 600 dpi.

Unable to place images in Illustrator

(Illustrator CS2)
Hi, Im still learning the program but this is an error that hasn't occurred before under the same circumstances. I am working on Macs at uni (as I dont have Illustrator at home) and with images from my USB drive. I want to get the images into my ai document and trace them to make a logo, but Illustrator is preventing me from doing this in any way I try.
* I try to 'place' (file>place...) a jpg from the USB into the ai document and one of three things happens:
1. It appears as though nothing has happened so I 'select all' and this highlights an empty box where my image should be. This always happens on the first try after I open the document.
2. I delete the box and try again. This time not even the invisible box is placed. The computer processes and then acts as if I commanded it to do nothing.
3. Irregularly, if I try again it seems like it's about to happen (with a preview showing and asking me to approve) and then I get the message "the operation cannot complete because of an unknown error".
* I tried opening the jpg in Photoshop and copying and pasting from there and got the same "unknown error" message, followed by the empty invisible box.
* The images place in photoshop with no problem.
* The images cant be dragged and dropped into Illustrator.
* I tried opening the image with Illustrator and get the message "insufficient memory was available to complete the operation". The image is only small - less than 1MB.
* I tried changing the file to a tiff and a pdf. I tried uploading the jpg to internet and saving and placing from there but this is unsuccessful. I tried other images saved both from my computer and the uni computer and they dont work.
* SOMETHING WORKS: I tried with random images from the internet and some (usually around 4kb) saved to Documents and placed are done so successfully. But this is no use to me.
I have done this in the past and there have been no problems placing or pasting images whatsoever. I dont think uninstalling is really an option as they are the uni's computers and that would probably be an ordeal.. I really need this to be fixed quickly as I have no other access to Illustrator and it's part of a job. It happens with all the computers in the lab. I cant even start making the logo until this is overcome. I would really appreciate some help! your ideas on what the problem could be and what needs to be done to fix it.
Thanks for your time,
Simon.

One causes of this error I've encountered has to do with the volume size of the disk the user's home folder is stored on.
I'm guessing that Simon Manion is logged onto the Mac at his university using a networked home folder that is stored on a volume larger than Illustrator scratch disk management routines can handle. (2TB is the limit I think.)
The workaround that I've been using is to create a 500MB disk image with Disk Utility, mounting the image, and using it as the only scratch disk. You may need to make your disk image larger. (Remember to restart Illustrator for the new scratch settings to take effect.)
Even though the actual local volumes are under 2TB, they don't seem to work as scratch disks if the user's home folder lives on a large server. For some reason, setting the scratch disk to a virtual volume gets thing working correctly.
This has solved the place image problem for me in Illustrator CS, CS2, and CS3.

Converting RGB images (sRGB or Adobe RGB) to 709 color space.

I'm trying to determine the correct way to convert RGB images (sRGB or Adobe RGB) to 709 color space. I can't just use the "covert to profile" function to do this because it does not produce results that fall within the 16 to 235 range that 709 dictates. I've read that you can simply use the "Levels" adjustment and change the output levels to 16 to 235. While this would clearly compress the luminance to the correct range, I'm not entirely clear if the end result would be a proper conversion (i.e. if color and gamma, for example, would be technically correct.)
I noticed that converting the profile to "HDTV (Rec. 709)" does alter the image, so I'm wondering what the result would be if I did both this AND used the levels control to compress the output range to 16 to 235.
Thanks for any feedback on this.

(1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._709
(2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._601
The transfer functions for Rec.709 (1) refer to the range [0..1] or for 8 bits per pixel [0...255].
It seems that the clipping, black=16 and white=235 has to happen after the application of the
transfer function. If this should be true, then we don't have a level compression but a level
clipping at both ends, as already for Rec.601 (2), like here:
The ICC-Profile HDTV(Rec.709) in Photoshop contains the primaries and the white point
(both like that in sRGB) and the transfer functions for [0..1], coded by a LUT with high resolution,
as found by Profile Inspector. There is no clipping.
By the way, that`s the internal profile name, I don't know the file name of the profile.
Softproofing, source in sRGB, target HDTV(Rec.709), without clipping:
With numbers not preserved: no change of the appearance, as expected.
With numbers preserved: shows the effect of different effective gammas.
Your questions are very clear and I'm not sure whether my comments help. The information
in the internet is not convincing.
Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

Enlarged bounding box around imported vector images (InDesign/Illustrator CC 2014)

Hi all, I've searched the forum for an answer but can't seem to find one. Hopefully someone can help.
Ever since my upgrade to CC2014, whenever I import a vector image from Illustrator into InDesign, the image comes in with an expanded bounding box. Unlike in the old days (i.e., the moment before I upgraded), when the bounding box would exactly enclose my image with no extra white space on any of the sides.
Sometimes the bounding box is small and sometimes it's gigantic. I cannot determine any rhyme or reason why it varies. Sometimes it's wider on the sides than on the top/bottom. Other times it's gigantic on one side but not the others. Basically, it's all over the place with no consistency that I can determine.
I find it incredibly visually distracting to have these weird-sized bounding boxes around my art, and it sucks to have to constantly resize them on every imported image.
I promise there are no guides, stray points, etc. in the Illustrator files. There is absolutely nothing "invisible yet there" that would create these expanded bounding boxes.
Two samples are below.
Note on this first one that the bounding box is wider at the right than the left.
On this second sample, note that the bounding box is gigantic in general, but especially at the top, and it's smaller on the sides/bottom. Huh?
Any ideas? I desperately want this to stop. Just want a bounding box that exactly encloses my artwork after I import it.
Thank you for your ideas or suggestions,
Laurie

Hi Bob, thanks very much for this info. I figured there was a checkbox hidden somewhere...
I tried all of the cropping options and although it seems like this would be a fix, it's unfortunately not fully resolving the issue.
The option that gets me closest is "crop to art." However, as you can see from the sample below, there's still a pretty large gap at the bottom, as well as a small one at the left side. (The top and right actually are cropped to the art, as requested.)
Do you have any other suggestions of things I can try? Or does anyone else have any ideas?
Thanks again,
Laurie

Add Strokes to Placed Images in Illustrator

Hi All,
I'm having a problem to add a stroke "frame" around my tiff image in Illustrator. My image is a "traced picture" from Photoshop. I used the following technique:-
Technique: Use an Effect
Choose File > Place and select an image to place into Illustrator document.
Choose File > Place and select an image to place into Illustrator document.
The image is selected. Open Appearance panel and from the Appearance panel flyout menu, choose Add New Stroke.
With the Stroke highlighted in the Appearance panel, choose Effect > Path > Outline Object.
However, the result I got was the stroke around the image NOT the frame around the image.
How do I achieve it. Any help and tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Technique #1: Use a Mask
This technique requires Illustrator CS3 and works only when your keyline will be rectangular in shape.
Choose File > Place and choose an image to place into your Illustrator document. You can either Link or Embed the image. Once you've chosen the image, click the Place button.
The image is selected (if your image already exists in your document, select it now), so if you look in your Control panel at the top of the screen, you'll see a button labeled "MASK". Click on it. This creates a mask at the exact bounds of the image.
Press the "D" key for Default. This gives the mask a black 1 pt stroke attribute. Adjust the stroke per your design needs.
NOTE: An additional benefit to this method of using a mask is that you now have the elements in place to simulate a "frame and image" paradigm like InDesign. Once you've created your mask, you can decide to "crop" your image by double clicking anywhere on the photo. This will put you into Isolation Mode. Now click on the frame edge and resize at will. When you're done, double click outside the image to exit isolation mode and continue working. This method works wonderfully when you're using the Selection tool (black arrow) and have the Bounding Box option turned on (in the View menu).
Technique #2: Use an Effect
At first, it may seem that applying a keyline with the use of an Effect is a tedious process. But we all know that once we've applied an effect, we can store it as a Graphic Style, at which point applying our keyline will become a single click. Go ahead, ask me why Adobe doesn't ship Illustrator with such an effect as a default setting in the NDPs (New Document Profiles). Go ahead, ask me why Adobe doesn't allow us to assign keyboard shortcuts to styles like InDesign does. I don't have answers to either of those questions (sorry). But let's get on with the styles, shall we?
There are two separate effects that we can use, and each provides a different benefit.
Choose File > Place and select an image to place into your Illustrator document. You can either Link or Embed the image. Once you've chosen the image, click the Place button.
The image is selected (or if your image already exists in your document, select it). Open your Appearance panel and from the Appearance panel flyout menu, choose Add New Stroke. We can't see the stroke yet, because all we have is an image. But we'll change that in short order.
With the Stroke highlighted in the Appearance panel, choose Effect > Convert to Shape > Rectangle. Check the Preview button, select the Relative option, and set both the Extra Width and Extra Height to zero (0). (Be careful not to press Tab after you enter the second value, or it will switch back to Absolute.) Click OK to apply the effect. Style the stroke attribute to match your design preference.
Now make this easier to apply in the future. With the object still selected, open the Graphic Styles panel and click the New Graphic Style button at the bottom of the panel. Give the style an appropriate name. If you then add this style to your NDPs, it will be readily available in all new files that you create.
Add Strokes to Placed Images in Illustrator | CreativePro.com

White color of RGB image changes when exporting to CMYK PDF

I'm used to work as long as possible in RGB. Even my images placed in InDesign stay in RGB. I only convert to CMYK while exporting to PDF. This always worked fine. I now noticed that RGB images with a white background changed in the CMYK PDF.
The white wasn't white any more, but C=1/M=1/Y=1/K=0 !
Result is a very light-grey background when printed on an offset press.
If I convert the image to CMYK in Photoshop first, I don't have this problem. I always thought InDesign and Photoshop used the same conversion-tool? Guess not ...
I didn't have this problem in CS2, I think. So my guess is it got something to do with CS3, but I'm not sure.
Someone got an idea?
I use Adobe creative Suite CS3 5.0.4
Mac Os 10.5.5
Color Management is set to European Prepress (I already tried to change this --> no effect)

I've noticed that there are slight variations between Photoshop and ID, but I think it's just a rounding error. Photoshop's CMYK readouts are always integers, while ID swatches can readout numbers. So obviously it's possible to output 1.67% cyan, but Photoshop's info readout rounds that up to 2%. Try making an 253|253|253 RGB swatch in ID, then open Swatch Options and convert the swatch mode to CMYK. You'll get a conversion something like .78|.39|.39|0 depending on your profiles, yet the Separation Preview reads out 1|0|0|0 with the total ink as 2%.

PLACING Images in Illustrator documents and saving.

Is there any way to just embed pictures in an illustrator document, because I know when you PLACE (File> Place) them in, it creates a link, and if you accidently delete a pic or something it won't show up in your document you open. My question is: Is it possible once you place images in your document, to embed them permanantly without having them linked at all, yet still preserve editing capability?
I save out a lot of PDF's and sometimes the images are linked to the pdf's as well. I always have (preserve illustrator editing capabilities) checked when I save out my PDF's in order to make changes regularly. ANY HELP??

To embed images go to you links palette flyout menu and choose embed.
Experienced Illustrator users usually do not embed because
makes your illustrator files larger and slower.
cannot keep track of resolution or color space
they can keep track of their files without losing
making edits later is a longer process
overall control and management of image quality is better
Embedding images on large projects increase the overall project file size, because you make a copy of the image within illustrator each time you embed.
To edit embedded images, you need to copy from illustrator and paste them into photoshop. Problem is you do not know what original resulotion they are and you maybe upsampling the image or changing the colorspace/profile. If you still want to embed, you are better off , keeping an original image in your job folder, that you can edit in Photoshop, and then use the links palette in Illustrator to relink.

RGB images in Illustrator

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