Saving adobe illustrator to PDF changes appearance of black.

Question

I have been trying to save a poster I am making for ages from Illustrator to PDF on my PC. I have my preferences on Illustrator set as CMYK and the appearance of black is 'Rich Black' and it looks right on illustrator but the minute I save it to PDF and open it, the black appears grey. I am desperate at this point since my deadline is tomorrow. I don't know why this isn't working, because I haven't had this issue before with Adobe. This is a particular problem because the black of my border (which appears grey) conflicts with the rich black of a jpeg image that I want to merge with the border. I don't understand the issue, after trying many different settings.

Answer 1

jasminetiffin wrote:
I put all CMYK Values to 100%
DO NOT DO THAT, EVER.
Is the JPEG you're trying to match RGB or CMYK? If it's RGB, use a RGB swatch in Illustrator that matches the values of the black in the JPG. If it's CMYK and the black is 100% everything, convert it back to RGB. If it's CMYK and has a more sensible (i.e. below the total ink limit specified in your CMYK profile) rich black, use a CMYK swatch that matches it.
Having Illustrator set to display 100% K as rich black is misleading and I don't recommend it. Solid black ink or toner alone will appear somewhat grey when printed, otherwise there would be no need for rich black. It's better to be able to distinguish between the two on screen.