Color management keeps getting activated when opening files with placed images
When opening Illustrator file with placed file containing color profile Illustrator automatically actives custom color management profiles even if previously color management was deactivated.
OS version: macOS 15.7.4, Illustrator version: 30.5.1
Steps to reproduce:
With no document open, set color management settings to "Emulate Illustrator 6.0" to deactivate color management.
Create new document, add an image with an embedded color profile, save the file and close it.
Expected behaviour:
On reopening the document the existing color management setting is honored (stays set to "Emulate Illustrator 6.0"), and no query is made to provide color profile settings for the opened file.
The actual result
When reopening the file, Illustrators color management setting gets changed to a custom profile, and you are queried to provide the profile settings for this document, thereby overriding the user defined (and preferred) color management settings.
Until recently the behaviour was that Illustrator honored the color management settings and did NOT automatically activate and set color profiles. Illustrator 2025 still uses the expected behaviour of keeping the user defined color management settings.
This behaviour ONLY occurs if images WITH embedded color profiles are placed in the illustrator files. Removing the color profile from the image reverts the behaviour back to the expected behaviour, also files with only vector data are not affected.
Of course, one could argue that activating color profiles is the safe way to handle colors, and I might agree with this - BUT if I consiously decide to deactivate color management I would expect that Illustrator to honor this decision, and not revert to what it thinks is the correct way. Currently Illustrator 2026 requires to take additional steps every time an Illustrator file is opened which is disruptive and also a potential source for errors.
Michael
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