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Colour values change on their own! Very frustrating

Colours keep slightly changing over time, even as I am designing live inside a file!

I will enter an exact CMYK or RGB value to match our brands colours, then these values will change slightly all on their own.

I've been monitoring this for about 2 months now hoping this issue would be resolved in an update... but it hasnt been!

This is a massive issue! Colours have to be stable!

We need to be able to trust the program with things that are vital for a brand, like their COLOURS!

The attached image shows -
Top: is the original version of the design with correct colour values
Bottom: shows the change in colour and colour values a few mins later (still live in file, no save/close)

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Chrispy303 shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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Need More Info  ·  AdminEgor Chistyakov (Admin, Adobe Illustrator) responded  · 

This problem requires an investigation, but not enough data is gathered yet to even start it.


Please provide these settings to help the team to deal with the problem:

1. The version of illustrator. OS and GPU model

2. Your color settings (a screenshot of the Color Settings dialog will do)

3. A test file with swatches which gets changed

4. A copy of this file when changes happen (if there is a difference in actual numbers swatches store)

Also, please check if the behaviour differs when you disable GPU mode and note that.


Send these to sharewithai@adobe.com (please also provide the link to this report for tracking purposes — https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/40866958) or share directly in the comments if you are allowed to share these files publicly.


It looks like this case is configuration specific, so if you are potentially willing to participate in the investigation of this issue by a call with a team member, please note this too.

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  • Josh Balsillie commented  ·   ·  Report

    I've seen this sort of thing happen when switching between color profiles, saving to a particular file/color format or copying designs from one file to another.

    I have also had this sort of thing appear to happen when not using swatches correctly and the issue can be exacerbated when using the eyedropper tool and the undo/redo functions.

    Not sure if any of the above are applicable in your case, but this has been my experience over the years. I'm not an expert with color, but I am more careful than I used to be.

  • Rocco commented  ·   ·  Report

    It's happening to me too!!!! Thousands of files that need to be reopened after saving and eyedrop the colors to make sure the color stuck. The R value is correct, but the G shifted by 1 and the B went from 0 to 5. This is not the only swatch that starts out correct in the library then changes on the saved file.

  • Chrispy303 commented  ·   ·  Report

    Still no solution.
    Adobe finally contacted me to investigate after waiting for over 2 years... they asked for all this stuff to help their investigation, which I supplied... that was 2-3 months ago
    Probably going to have to wait another 2 years for any action.

    WE NEED AN ALTERNATIVE TO ADOBE

    (Edited by admin)
  • Dawn commented  ·   ·  Report

    Has been happening to me constantly. My theory is it has something to do with dragging images into my file, that's when my colors start to change.

    This is with the workaround mentioned below- still doesn't prevent it from happening for me.

    These were once the same color

  • Rachel Mary commented  ·   ·  Report

    This happens to me as well. I have tried everything to make it stop, double checking all of my color profiles and settings, and nothing helps. As you said it even changes WHILE I am in the middle of working on a design. Occasionally when open illustrator, my global swatch library colors are messed up as well. The RGB values read the same but the colors displayed are TOTALLY off from what they should be.

  • Industrial Ideas Design Department commented  ·   ·  Report

    This is happening to me too. I can't figure out how to keep the colour stable. Very frustrating because I'm dealing with a style guide and logo. Client will not be happy

  • Tim Ruddick commented  ·   ·  Report

    Sadly, David's suggestion (ensure File > Document Color Mode = RGB) doesn't fix the problem for me.

    I have a yellow colored object in my file. I'm aiming for RGB=(238, 200, 22), but even with File > Document Color Mode = RGB, when I Export as JPEG using Color Mode RGB and Embed ICC Profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1, the pixels in my .jpg file are (232, 194, 22) instead.

    I concede that I don't know all the color management options available to me in Illustrator, and that maybe I'm missing something. Is there some combination of Document options or color Swatch Options (Spot Color vs Process Color, Global YES/NO, Color Mode, Preview YES/NO) or anything else that will get me (238, 200, 22) in my JPEG file?

  • David Edmondson commented  ·   ·  Report

    Something I was able to do was switch it over in File > Document Color Mode and choosing RGB rather than CMYK colors. That finally fixed things. What's annoying is that it seems like the default is CMYK; I'll need to be more on top of my color mode in the future.

  • Lance commented  ·   ·  Report

    Husaln,

    Is your file something you'd feel comfortable attaching to a comment here? That'd be the best way to share it, unless its contents are of a sensitive or proprietary nature.

  • Husain Nasir commented  ·   ·  Report

    How do I contact you personally lance? I'll share my *.ai file to you in order to let you know the exact issue.

  • Lance commented  ·   ·  Report

    I have never seen this behavior, but it sounds like some sort of bug in illustrator's color engine or color management.

    My system:
    Windows10
    Illustrator 25.4.1 (an other versions back to Illustrator CC 2015-ish)

    Has anyone with this issue ever re-set their preferences? It's a major hassle if you have customized illustrator's preferences to the n'th degree, but sometimes the prefs file gets corrupted and needs to be re-set. I like to backup the folder that the prefs file is in at least once every 6mo.

    My prefs file is located here:
    C:\Users\yourWindowsUsernameHere\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 25 Settings\en_US\x64\

    look for the "Adobe Illustrator Prefs" file and rename it to "Adobe Illustrator Prefs.old" (just so you don't trash a potentially good prefs file) Illustrator will build/create a fresh prefs file when you run the software next.

    I'd be very interested in examining an example *.ai file wherein the issue is observed to have happened, to see if the behavior continues on my system. Somebody with the issue care to share a file?

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    I am also having the exact same issue.

    Everything starts life as normal, but the longer I work on a file, the more dull the colours appear to get. It's annoying as I'm having to make a habit of correcting all colours before I export a file, which is adding a fair amount of time to my work flow.

    From looking at these comments, it looks like this has been happening to a fair few people...

  • Dawn commented  ·   ·  Report

    Same thing is continuing to happen to me.

    In my latest experience, it decided to only change + muddy up the shape "fills" only and not the strokes, though they were the same exact hex color the last time I looked at the file.

    Please help adobe! this is an awful and costly issue.

  • James commented  ·   ·  Report

    Does anyone have a solution to this yet? It is driving me crazy.

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