It is time for Adobe apps to correctly color manage PNG files and embed and read them during export and import. An option during export to convert to sRGB would make non color managed apps happy.
According to this W3C Document, PNG can store gamma and chromaticity data as well as a full ICC colour profile for accurate colour matching on heterogenous platforms.

https://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-PNG-20031110/

Vorschlag zur Verbesserung des Exports:
Einbettung des ausgewählten Farbprofils in PNG- und andere Formate.

Beim Export über das Fenster „Export von Elementen“ wird das im Dokument gewählte Farbprofil aktuell nicht in PNG-Dateien oder andere exportierte Dateien eingebettet. Dadurch entsteht ein zusätzlicher Arbeitsschritt, da das Profil nachträglich in Photoshop manuell zugewiesen werden muss, um Farbabweichungen zu vermeiden.

Es wäre daher äußerst hilfreich, wenn das ausgewählte Farbprofil direkt beim Export automatisch in die erzeugten Dateien integriert würde. Das würde die Farbverbindlichkeit sichern, den Workflow vereinfachen und unnötige Nachbearbeitungsschritte vermeiden.

Mateus, it will convert it to whatever RGB profile is set as the RGB Working Profile in your Color Settings. If that is sRGB, it will be used. If that is Wide Gamut RGB, that will be used.
Because the profile is not embedded in the .png file, Photoshop will assume that whatever is in its Color Settings is the profile for the .png, which can be right or wrong.

I've been testing the color test to see what could be causing this, it seems that it converts to sRGB somehow

Sure, no problem

Don’t you mind me merging it then?

In fact, it appears to be something similar to this problem

I see what you mean. Colors look similar, the orange is definitely not the same as shown in RGB, but these are not exactly what you get in CMYK, colors differ enough. But I feel it’s something else in play.
It can be a known problem with not embedding a color profile, reported here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/34662151
Please follow the thread’s comments to compare your experience with the other ones.
Can you also show you Color Settings, please?

Here I transformed the document to CYMK so you can notice the difference in colors. Then I went back to RGB and exported it to screens, notice the difference in the color of the artboard on the desktop and in the image preview when you put it to export to screens, it is clearly less saturated and when you actually export it it presents this same effect, this started In the newest updates, it had never happened

The colors are clearly less saturated, characteristic of CYMK, even though PNG doesn't support it, it is imitating the same colors, one I exported as a legacy WEB mode which managed to leave it in RGB colors, the other was for screens, which left it with colors similar to CYMK

Mateus, but PNG doesn’t support CMYK in the first place. What makes you think these get exported as CMYK? I see nothing peculiar in the shared screenshot. Can you please explain this further?

When I want to export via screens, even though the file is in RGB it is exporting as if it were CMYK, I have tried configuring it in different ways, but it is not working.

Ability to assign a color profile to a png is essential.
We dont want AI to "secretly" convert to sRGB upon export.
There should be feature parity with photoshop which allows profiles on any export.

To the users who say "use webp" or "open in photoshop/preview, thats not related to OP.
OP not asking "what is a workaround?" or "what is another format?"

WebP is a good way to combine transparency, lossless compression and color management. But if you need for some reason a PNG, you either have to convert the webp to png or open the png and assign a color profile. Both ways need some work after saving the file (which of course could be automated) and thus are not really a replacement for embedding a color profile within Illustrators export dialogue. But Adobe apparently insists on ignoring this...

The best option currently is to export the file in ". webp". This extension allows you to export WITHOUT BACKGROUND and also allows you to EMBED THE COLOR PROFILE.

pleaseeee updateee :(

5 years

It is a possible workaround. On Mac, opening in Preview can assign a profile too. But this should not be necessary if Illustrator just behaved like a good color managed application and read and save a profile in the png. Should not be too difficult after more than 4 years.

A possible solution consists in embedding a color profile in the Illustrator-generated PNG using software that has that capability. Here are the steps for Adobe Photoshop (v22):

1. From Illustrator save the document to PNG format.
2. Open the Illutrator-generated PNG in Photoshop.
3. Assign the desired color profile to the image: Photoshop > Edit > Assign Profile > Profile > [e.g. Adobe RGB].
4. Save the image with the selected profile embedded: File > Save As... > check Embed Color Profile > Save.

Please address this issue! We should be able to have color profile assigned.