oversaturated PDF colors in web browser

[asdfblah]

The colors are fine when the file is viewed in Acrobat but when opening the PDF in Chrome/Firefox the colors are insanely oversaturated. Is there something special I need to do when exporting a PDF so it works in a web browsers PDF viewer? I have tried setting the destination profile to sRGB, CMYK, Working sRGB, and no profile and it always ends up looking the same.

[Steve Werner]

This is why we recommend that for professional prepress work you use Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader. There are many PDF readers which ignore profiles and many other things required for prepress. Don't use them!

[BobLevine]

Beyond Acrobat and Reader there is no way to control how a PDF is going to look or behave. Web browsers are probably the worst of the bunch when it comes to this.

[rob day]

The colors are fine when the file is viewed in Acrobat but when opening the PDF in Chrome/Firefox the colors are insanely oversaturated. Is there something special I need to do when exporting a PDF so it works in a web browsers PDF viewer? I have tried setting the destination profile to sRGB, CMYK, Working sRGB, and no profile and it always ends up looking the same.

Not all browsers will color manage profiled color, so you can't export to CMYK and expect consistent color. All of my OSX browsers assume RGB color is sRGB, so sRGB should work even with browsers that don't color manage try this export Output setting:

Here from left to right InDesign, Firefox, Chrome, Preview, Safari— all match.

If I export to PDF/X-4 where the CMYK color is left unchanged Safari correctly color manages the color, but Firefox doesn't and I get the oversaturated preview of the CMYK color in Firefox. Safari on the left Firefox on the right:

[asdfblah]

those are the same settings I used, theres no difference between sRGB and CMYK when viewed in Chrome. I also tried exporting as Acrobat 4, 5, and 6.

[rob day]

What OS are you using? What Color Settings did you use when you created the document? Can you share the PDF?

[JonathanArias]

I personally have noticed issues when trying to jump from a Pantone to sRBG.  I convert the pantones to CYMK from indesign and than export the interactive .pdf format.

[rob day]

I personally have noticed issues when trying to jump from a Pantone to sRBG.  I convert the pantones to CYMK from indesign and than export the interactive .pdf format.

Yes, spot colors might be a problem for browsers—although Interactive exports don't allow spots and everything converts to sRGB.

That's not the case with Print exports even when the Output is set to convert to sRGB as in my example. The spot colors will get exported as spot color plates and wouldn't have a profile assigned. If you add transparency to the mix the Transparency Blend Space would also have an affect.