Procreate Colour Problems On Export

Erin.Cortese · 20 Dec 2018, 21:02

I am hoping some of the Procreate users out there can help me with some very frustrating colour problems I am having. My colours look great while I am working in Procreate (bright, saturated, vibrant), and once I export in any format, they appear dull and desaturated. I always have to do so much colour correcting in Photoshop! This never happens when I do my painting in Photoshop, the colours remain accurate on export, and on almost any device I view it in.
I am close to giving up on Procreate for painting, but I thought I should post here first.

lucisaurus · 20 Dec 2018, 21:22

Hi there!
I honestly never had a problem!
When you set up a canvas, make sure you select RGB and when you open up the file in Photoshop make sure you keep the same colour mode or the colours will be changed. Also what kind of monitor do you have? That might impact how you see the colours

Make sure you don't have night mode on and that the brightness is up, I trick myself sometimes, think that the colours are weird and then I realise that I was in night mode so it was all orangy... so try to check this little things!

Let me know if this is not the case

ArtofAleksey · 20 Dec 2018, 21:33

Yeah when creating a canvas use RGB and It may also help (if you have an ipad pro) turn off true tone display in display accommodations in Settings > general > accessibility > display accommodations (but you might have to play with it on or off to test and see if it will help)

Erin.Cortese · 21 Dec 2018, 02:00

@lucisaurus @swordofodin Thanks for the advice, I have definitely been fooled by my night mode in the past too, but all of my setting look right. I have turned True Tone on, so hopefully this will make a difference.

I went through my past illustrations and noticed that the ones I have the most issues with are the ones that use darker tones and values. It seems very accurate on export with lighter tones...I’m stumped. But fingers crossed the “true tone” will solve my problems.

lucisaurus · 21 Dec 2018, 18:10

@inkandspatter keep us updated!

Kevin Longueil · 21 Dec 2018, 18:49

@inkandspatter I am remembering someone mentioning that they painted with the screen brightness down a specific percent ...ten maybe? If i had to guess who it was it would be @Art-of-B but i am not sure. I think the idea is that the powerful backlight on the iPad adds a richness to colors, and for me, nuances in the dark areas, that might be lost on another screen - i definately had the problem that my drawings seemed much darker when i sent them elsewhere so the idea that the screen may add a bit too much brightness could be a piece of the your color puzzle.

Erin.Cortese · 21 Dec 2018, 19:28

@kevin-longueil I have my brightness at 50%, I will try taking it down even more. Thanks!

Kristin Wauson · 21 Dec 2018, 22:52

That sounds like a cmyk conversion to me, but I’m not sure at what point in procreate you would have the option to export it as CMYK. Make sure when you create your document you have RGB selected if you are painting something that is meant to be displayed on a screen. I always have to brighten my ipad art in photoshop when I’m done because it tends to come out dark. I have always assumed it had to do with the ipad screen display (as @Kevin-Longueil mentioned).

Nyrryl Cadiz · 22 Dec 2018, 09:43

I absolute understand what your going through. When i first started painting on procreate, my illustrations looked really vibrant but when I exported them to my laptop in photoshop, it looked really dull. What I later found out is that it’s not the tablet or procreate that has a problem but rather it’s my laptop’s screen. My 4 year old laptop is not color calibrated correctly. Heance the desaturation when I export images to it. My suggestion is to get your device correctly color calibrated.

Erin.Cortese · 22 Dec 2018, 13:32

@kristin-wauson I’m definitely in RGB in Procreate, and when I check the illustration in Photoshop it is RGB as well...I’m going to double check the one I’m working on now. I frequently have to lighten my illustrations once I export them to Photoshop too, the colours that also appear desaturated are even more frustrating.

Erin.Cortese · 22 Dec 2018, 13:37

@nyrrylcadiz I thought that initially as well, but what confuses me is that when I export from my MacBook, or my iMac, the colours are consistent. I did quite a bit of graphic design work and web design work on both of those devices, and I never had colour consistency issues (even when viewing on client devices). How did you go about calibrating your devices?