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Xcode + PDF images colors look darker in simulator/device (color space issue)

I know this isn't a new problem and I've done a full day (literally) of research. I use the latest Xcode 6, and I'm trying to use all PDF files as vector art resources. However, when I export these images from Illustrator in sRGB (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) , these images show up noticeably darker than if I used a png file.

Some previous suggested solutions are: setting Illustrator file color profile to "web" and choose color space "RGB", and exporting to pdf with Illustrator converting the color space to "sRGB IEC61996-2.1". The latter worked for me for one of the images... And today when I tried the same thing it didn't work!

So I tried all the other solutions, I retried, restarted, tried using different programs, renaming resources, cleaning the project... Nothing worked! The colors still look darker on screen, and the old PDF icon I made look perfect still!

The PDF looks perfect in any other viewer, including Xcode itself, by the way. It's when Xcode compiles, the images get broken (PNG files are generated, and something is wrong with their colorspace).

This is driving me nuts... Anyone else having this problem?

Depending on the screen, you can tell that the center button is quite a bit lighter than the other two icons. I intersected two just to show how distinguishable it is. But on my MacBook Air, they appear identical. Perhaps this has to do with what people say about Apple taking the compiling machine's color space into account? On my iPhone and MacBook they look very different.

Update If I change my MacBook Air's display -> color profile to sRGB, I can clearly tell the difference now. I'm retrying importing the PDF,and maybe the conversion will be correct. Will update.

Solution

  • I've had tremendous troubles with this. And I finally figured it out.

    1. Apple uses sRGB for iOS. To do this you must save your pdf (convert to) in sRGB. I do this with Illustrator -> new -> profile = "web", color space = "RGB" -> save as PDF -> (in options) convert to sRGB. This is suggested by many others in similar questions' solutions. The next... Is what I found out. A trap, if you will.

    2. CAUTION! When you copy past paths over to the new artboard in RGB, the RGB values may have been changed by Illustrator. This took me ages to figure out... Even though the saving to PDF part was right, Illustrator broke it by changing the values by default, making everything darker and more dull.

    Hope this helps!