Export to PDF changes colors

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Level 1

10 points

Export to PDF changes colors

I have a longstanding problem that I hoped would have been fixed but has not. I had this in prior versions of Keynote and in prior OS's. I am now using Leopard and Keynote in iWork 08. All software is latest version.

I use a bright green font and various other bright colors in keynote. When I export to PDF many (not all) of the colors are noticeably muted and washed out. It is particularly noticeable in the bright green (called "spring" in the crayon pallete in keynote). Other colors change tint substantially.

The overall effect is to go from a vibrant presentation to something that looks very dull. I am referring here to colors as they appear on the screen (printing is a whole other issue). If I put the PDF version next to the keynote version on my large Apple LCD display, they look completely different.

This is not just a subtle effect. It is very noticeable color change.

Today I gave a presentation using Acrobat Connect and noticed the screen capture seemed to also have a color problem, and the presentation appeared on the remote screen with the same color changes as if it had been turned into PDF.

Presumably there is something very different about the way Apple and Adobe handle colors. Is there some setting I need to adjust or is this a bug? It seems like a pretty big issue to me.

Any help greatly appreciated.

4x2.5GHz PowerPC G5, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Dec 11, 2007 5:21 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 13, 2007 2:13 PM in response to lecturer275

I have the very same problem, and solved it this way:
1) Open "Print" from the File menu in Keynote, then choose "PDF" and "Save PDF as postscript"
2) Convert the ps to pdf (I use Acrobat Distiller)

Colors are preserved for me. You can also export from Keynote to PDF, then open the PDF in Preview and do steps 1) ad 2)

The colors are anyway right when opening the PDF with Preview: is this a problem with embedded color profiles?

Best

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Answer 2

lecturer275 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 13, 2007 8:38 PM in response to Riccardo M.G. Ferrari

Hi Riccardo:

Thank you. That works for me too. It is a bit cumbersome.

I don't understand why Apple does not take care of this problem. It means their export to PDF function is pretty much useless it seems to me.

Does anyone understand why this seems to be a long term unresolved problem with Keynote's export? I suspect it is also a problem with Pages.

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Answer 3

hauerdie

Level 1

80 points

Dec 17, 2007 1:39 AM in response to lecturer275

Hi,

its all about color management. If your system is calibrated, you should not have this problem.
You can also change color calibration of the generated pdfs with the colorsync utlility, just oben the pdf in colorsync and assign the right calibration profile.

As pdfs are normaly calibrated for printig, they mostly use CMYK. CMYK cannot show all colors you monitor can do, especially deep greens or blues. But they look the same when printed, so if you change the calibration of the pdf to some RGB profile, it may look like in keynote, but not anymore the same when printed.

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Answer 4

Dec 17, 2007 1:49 AM in response to hauerdie

hauerdie wrote:
As pdfs are normaly calibrated for printig, they mostly use CMYK. CMYK cannot show all colors you monitor can do, especially deep greens or blues. But they look the same when printed, so if you change the calibration of the pdf to some RGB profile, it may look like in keynote, but not anymore the same when printed.

Good theory, but I think it is wrong. When Mac OS X produced PDF files, it keeps the colour space of the original pictures. CMYK stays CMYK and RGB stays RGB. (You can see this using preflight in Adobe Acrobat, if you have that application.) The important thing is that the file, regardless of colour space, should have a good colour profile, and Mac OS X does it best to do that too.

But apart from that, I have no idea what could be wrong in the case described above.

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Answer 5

hauerdie

Level 1

80 points

Dec 17, 2007 2:25 AM in response to SermoDaturCunctis

Your right if you use pictues, then they should have the original profile, but what if you export a keynote presentation with charts, forms,...?
I think then it uses a generic pdf profile which uses CMYK and i think its possible to change the default profile.

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Answer 6

Dec 17, 2007 8:58 AM in response to hauerdie

I just did a test with one inserted shape with a default image fill and one with a gradient fill. Both turned up as RGB in the preflight check in Adobe Acrobat. This is the same whether you export to PDF or print to PDF-X.

However, if you print to PDF-X the overall output intent is CMYK. (An exported non-pdf-x file does not have explicit output intent.)

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Answer 7

lecturer275 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 17, 2007 6:05 PM in response to SermoDaturCunctis

Hi Magnus:

I am curious, if your shape is colored with the color called "spring" in the crayon pallet in keynote, whether it is changed when you view the PDF in Acrobat. That is what happens to me.

If I understand correctly the above dialog between you and the other poster, I do not understand the cause of the problem. I am viewing both the PDF and the original on the same monitor. I have not been able to find any settings that affect the color profile exported by Keynote. My goal is to create a PDF others can view and have it look as it did in my original presentation. If you think you know how I can make that happen, please explain again, and sorry if I am just not getting it.

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Answer 8

Dec 17, 2007 10:26 PM in response to lecturer275

To me they look exactly the same. I even took screen shots and measured the colour from both Adobe Reader, Preview and Keynote and measured the colour in Photoshop. They are all RGB 0,255,0.

I do not know what could be wrong on your machine, but I would look at the colour calibration in System Preferences Displays > Color. It may help, but then, it might not.

You should not have to parametrize this, but if you want to try, open the PDF in ColorSync Utility and apply different kinds of filters - create new ones if you want to. But to get things "right" there you need patience and experience.

Please, tell us if you find something out.

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Answer 9

Dec 20, 2007 8:50 AM in response to lecturer275

Our Keynote presentations are prepared on a MacBook Pro. They are also viewed on CRT, LCD & iMac screens which all give a much more sombre picture [which can be adjusted by changing Brightness].
Xerox DC12 laser printer gave fair printouts but a Canon Imagepress C1 using standard CMYK is nowhere near the MacBook screen colors.

Exporting direct Keynote>PDF gives mediocre results.

Exellent results however are achieved by fist Exporting Jpeg images at 100% then Creating PDF from Jpegs using Acrobat Pro.
Screen is VERY close to the Keynote screen.
Print from Acrobat Pro with CMYK = Euroscale Uncoated = very good results.

Jpeg colors can be fine-tuned in PhotoShop.

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