Why are my colours in Illustrator so dull??

I'm hoping somebody can help me with this as it's driving me nuts I'm working on digitalising my girlfriends artwork which needs to be very bright for the effect of her work to be seen but for the life of me, i can't get the right colours out of Illustrator. I'm pretty sure it used to give me vibrant colours but since really paying attention to it and actually needing them, i notice that they are duller than in photoshop at the exact same hex code for example. They seem to be less bright, almost pastel in tone and generally pretty lifeless.
I've tried messing with the colour settings but in all honesty, i have no idea what i'm doing with it all. My suite is synchronised throughout so they should show the same colours shouldn't they?? They are the same shade of boring even when exporting to image.
Help me adobe forums..... you're my only hope.... Ksshht.

You are working in CMYK and/or using a specific color profile without proof preview. Though that in itself begs the question - if this is supposed to be printed in any form, you may never get the bright colors you seek unless you use lots of spot colors or specific printing methods.
Mylenium

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Why are my colours dulled in indesign?

Hi team.
I guess this is something to do with my colour set up.
basically I am in the process of creating some simple one colour graphics in illustrator. And in illustrator they look just how I want nice and vibrant.
However once I place them into indesign they look dull and lifeless. This would not bother me except when I export to PDF from indeisgn that dull lifeless image is carried to the PDF.
If I PDF from illustrator it looks just how I want.
Frustratingly in the links panel of indesign that same great colour is there but I cannot for the life of me work out why in the document it looks dull and int he PDF too, I really need help on this as its for a tender which needs to be in by the end of the weekend.
To clarify I am not worried so much about absolute colour correction, i.e. calibrating screens etc, my problem is illustrator looks great, indesign looks dull.

It took most of the morning but I worked out what was causing the issue... the PNG files were! Still don't understand why though...
The correct PNG files are using "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" colour profile and the wrong ones were using "eciRGB v2" (the one I am supposed to be using from the company).
The InDesign document colour profile is set to "eciRGB v2" on all files (including embedded into imported images from PS and Illustrator).
The PDF setting (also a custom one from the company) Output Colour Conversion Destination set to "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" opening up the PDF in PS Colour changed to "eciRGB v2" on files not working... don't know why. I even tried changing the InDesign colour profile to "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" before exporting PDF, still opening up in PS as "eciRGB v2"... tried convert to profile in PS several times, crash it every time, also tried on other Mac, still crashed.
Changed colour profile in InDesign back to "eciRGB v2". Checked the imported assets, begun trial and error, removing photos then making PDF to see if they were causing the problem, and so on... four of the ai files were causing the PDF to open as "eciRGB v2" instead of "sRGB IEC61966-2.1".
I checked the settings in these ai files, they are exactly the same as the ai files in all the pages which are working, so still at a loss as to why these ones we're causing trouble when the others weren't. After checking several things, transparency, isolated blending, knockout groups etc I changed the edit colours and converted to RGB saved and updated, problem solved... made PDF, open in PS as "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" re-imported, remade PDF, perfect! Lovely and bright!
Why!? And please, any suggestions on a better workflow to save me having to do this ever again much appreciated.

Why are the colors in Illustrator and Photoshop so off?

Hi,
Let me just start off by saying I have the color mode in both Illustrator and Photoshop set to RGB. Yet, there is a noticeable color difference between a picture on the internet and when I paste it in for example Photoshop.
Picture from the internet:
Picture when pasted in Photoshop:
It's the same thing in Illustrator. And this is not just with pictures by the way, it's affects all the colors I use, which is a major pain in the rear.
Anyone know a fix?

Well, my suggestion in post #13, was to help me find out what the cause of your problem is. It doesn’t solve your problem permanently but temporarily, only for the current session of Photoshop or Illustrator by making these programs show your image without applying any color management conversions. So, you have to do this every time you open such files in these programs.
If you want to understand what is going on and be in control, you have to go through a lot of walls of text unfortunately .
I’ll try to explain it roughly but if you don’t understand it you need to read more about color management.
You are using Safari and this is how its color management works:
https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/technotes/tn2220/_index.html
on that page it says:
"Important: For images that are not tagged with a color profile, their color values will be displayed on the screen by Safari with no optimization or adjustment for differences between devices in how they render colors. This may result in the colors not being displayed as originally intended"
This made me think that like most images on the web, the image you are using doesn’t have a color profile. In that case, assuming a certain scenario based on your input, the reason it is displayed differently from Photoshop and Illustrator is because you have a color profile of your monitor used by your system that is different than the color space used for the display of the image. By default RGB Images without a color profile are displayed using the color space set for the working space in the Color Settings of Photoshop and Illustrator. Also by default this color space is sRGB. If your monitor was also with an sRGB profile assigned in the system, which is the case with all monitors that come without a color profile provided from the manufacturer, you should have not experienced this problem because Photoshop and Illustrator will see that the color space you want to display your image is sRGB and your monitor is sRGB, and there will be no color conversions because both color spaces, source and destination are the same. Unless someone else has setup your system ,color management, and installed a monitor profile, my guess is that the manufacturer of your monitor has provided a color profile installed in your system that is not sRGB.
When you choose View > Proof Setup > Monitor RGB, this in effect turns off the color management because you are displaying the image in the same color space as the one assigned to your monitor.
If you want to turn off the color management permanently which will be valid only when displaying images in the sRGB color space, you can assign the sRGB color profile to your monitor. This will show the images on your monitor with the same colors as those displayed without color management in the other applications and choosing View > Proof Setup > Monitor RGB will make no difference.
Non color managed programs can display the color only in the way your monitor displays it. Color managed programs simulate other outputs on your monitor. The only way to match the display in color managed and non color managed software is to turn off the color managed software. This will display the same color values with the same color in all programs on your monitor.
The purpose of the color management is to allow the viewer see the colors as intended (the way the creator sees them when creating the image). Different devices and media output the same color values differently resulting in different color. Therefore, when the viewer uses different device or media the colors if not color managed properly will look different or not as close as possible.
When you turn off the color management, or even when it is on but not properly applied, which I suspect is the case in your situation, you can’t be sure that the colors you see are as intended. In other words, you can’t tell if an image is supposed to look the way you see it, and you can’t create images providing means that will allow others to see them the way you see them.
So, for whatever reasons you want to make colors look the same in all your programs, have in mind that this is valid only on the current state of your monitor, and this also cuts the possibility to see and send to others colors as intended.

Why are colors wrong between illustrator and acrobat

On the right side i have the original ai file, on the left side, the same ai file when opened in acrobat.
Why is it fluo in acrobat??
Both programs share the same CMYK profile FOGRA39 and same RGB profile
(image removed at request of poster)

abjelly,
The one to the left looks like RGB, and the one to the right looks like CMYK (Color Mode).

Why are my Illustrator images getting thicker strokes when I take the bounding box and make them smaller?

Why are my Illustrator images getting thicker strokes when I take the bounding box and make them smaller? This has never happened to me. I'm not an expert at Illustrator, but I do know some fundamentals.

Thank you for responding so quickly. No apologies necessary - I know this Forum isn't McDonalds - don't expect an answer to be served up right away. You helped me out with a big issue yesterday.
I am using a mac - OSX 10.7.5
I have Adobe Creative Suites - CS5 - Illustrator version is 15.0.2
The contents I am placing are all Vector - Illustrator files
But, I wonder about some of the vector files I work with. Could a "line weight/thickness" be 'assigned' to the drawing and screw things up? I used 'simple' linear (line) drawings from SolidWorks that have been converted to ai files. It's just weird because I checked the stroke of the drawing and it's not out of line.
I am attaching part of some box labels. You can see how the drawings, of the products, on the 'left side' are "thick" after embedding them. I think the "Global Logo" was pasted into a template not linked that's why it's okay. But look at the Quiet Thunder logo - it looks terrible. These labels are only 2.25" X 6.5", so its important I keep the images lightweight.
Your help is very much appreciated. Thank you!

Why are our picture boxes in illustrator printing thin white outlines of each box a picture is in

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Couldn't tell you, I'm afraid. You've posted in the Audition forum, and we only know about sound here. You need to find the Illustrator forum, and post there.

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I'm running a Mac with Mavericks.

Yes, I understand that. If I adjust the color in only C Raw, or also go into the Editor, the changes are saved in the Org. What surprises me is the vast difference in color temp. I'm estimating about 500 K diff--enough that I may not have edited the color I see in C Raw--but definitely wanted to do so from what I viewed in the Org. I don't recall this much of a difference--and the Org seems to be the one not accurately reflecting the image.

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iVmichael wrote:
Monochromatic, Orwellian Dullness everywhere, totally hate the look it's a step backwards not forwards. It's absolute b****cks to say this is being 'more inclusive' when it turns so many people OFF!
Have you done a sampling of all users, or only those users that don't like it? While I don't mind it, I don't think I even noticed it at first until someone pointed it out.
I note that if you get Info on an item the icon is still colour so this is some OS level (we know best) overaly that's turning everything bland and boring, it would be nice if Apple let the user actually chose this rather than force it upon them ... just like Microsoft I'm sad to say.
Microsoft? The '90s are over. But regardless of what decade you are living in, Apple has never been too big on end-user customization of the operating system. Apple has always discouraged the use of "themes" whereas Microsoft will allow people to do pretty much whatever they want.
The file system icons are still the same as they have always been. The new monochrome icons are clearly a design trend more than any change to the underlying operating system. If you turn off the expanded view in any file save dialog (other than in Safari), you can still see the old, glorious, multicoloured icons. If you really wanted to, I'm sure you could change the system-level images and make Finder and Mail look just like they used to.

My Kuler (now Adobe Color CC) Color Themes are not updating in Illustrator

I've created some new colour themes in Adobe Color CC and saved them however they are not appearing in illustrator. My older colour themes from weeks ago are there but not the ones i created today. It says last update at 9am (gmt) this morning, its now 4pm. Why won't this update?
Edit: Not

Hi Cutlass,
Will it be possible for you to join the connect session:
https://my.adobeconnect.com/rbhunwal
Regards,
Raghuveer

Why are missing from the Bridge CS6 menu: Tools the entries?

Hello all
why are missing for me in the Bridge of CS6 in the menu item Tools, the entries for Fireworks, Photoshop and Illustrator?
Since I installed the Creative Cloud CS6, these entries are missing.
A screen name is required to continue. Please enter a screen name.
Thomas

Click edit/preferences/startup scripts and make sure you have at least Bridge and Photoshop checked.

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There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
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You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
There's a similar option in Outlook and many, many other apps. If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running:
For users of 10.6 and later: You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu.
Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and 10.5 Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
Drag and Drop: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
File -> Export: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
Show File: a. On iPhoto 09 and earlier: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected. 3.b.
b: On iPhoto 11 and later: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.

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The only way round I have found is to view the background/clipboard as a Transparency Grid and then make the transparency grid white, or hide the artboard altogether (which is annoying), both of these cannot be set as a default.
I have included a picture of a corner of the artboard, showing it against the clipboard.
Would appreciate a solution!
Cheers,
N

Thanks for that - another good solution but not possible for this to be a default setting either.
Does anyone else find this issue a problem - it seems strange to me as Indesign CS4 and the old version of illustrator both have pure white backgrounds, which are (arguably) easier to work with.
It seems a step backwards to have a fixed coloured background! Please make it a preference option Adobe!

Why are my duotone images turning black and white when put in indesign?

why are my duotone images turning black and white when put in indesign?
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Can you start a new document and then load one of the duotones known to be good in the working file and have it correct? If so, try one of the duotones known to be bad in the working document in the new file. Does it work?
If no to either suggestion, can you share one of the images known to be good and one known to be bad? ZIP 'em up and upload to dropbox and plop a link here. Or, to keep the file sizes down, you can quickly make a new set and provide those.
As well, the ID version and OS info would probably be helpful.
Take care, Mike

Hi why are my photos after downloading twice ,once in photo library and once in a file with the date why cant i delete a file its an iphone 4s please help

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Generally I would not use Facebook for sharing any photos, it compresses the photos substantially, and when you have shadows and dark colours you get visible "bands" where there should be subtle gradients, ie at sunsets and sunrises.
It sounds like you are using two methods to upload to Facebook:
1. Sharing from within Aperture, which basically syncs Facebook with your Aperture album, so any changes made at either end gets synced, hence the deletions from Albums, although the original file should still be in your library, just removed rom the album. It is like a playlist in iTunes.
2. Exporting pics and uploading to Facebook from the browser.
I am not sure how method 1 gets compressed, but I know that uploading hi-res jpegs to Facebook using method 2 results in poor quality images.
I wouldn't even bother comparing option 1 or 2, and they will both be poor images once you view them on Facebook, as opposed to viewing uploaded images on proper image sharing / hosting sites.
Your problem is not with Aperture, it is using Facebook for showing your work.
If you export pics form Aperture at high res jpegs or TIFFs your images will be fine.
If you insist to use Facebook as your way to share your work, then your workflow should be this:
1. Right click images you want to share.
2. Select Export version.
3. Export as 100% size and ensure the export settings are set at 100% quality.
4. Upload this pic into Facebook.
This will get you the best image size and resolution on Facebook.
See how you go.

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Because Illustrator accessed the PDF part of the file.
---> this points to corrupt files.
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How old are they?
Which versions were they created in?
Did you already try to restart (the computer)?
Any plugins installed?

Why are my colours in Illustrator so dull??

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