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I open an EPS file containing a company logo (using Illustrator), and see that the color they used is described as C,M,Y,K values in percentage. But I don't see any kind of color space attribution.

Does CMYK always use the same definition, at least for this kind of print work? With RGB there are different color spaces to choose from and the numbers don't mean much without knowing which space they are noted in.

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CMYK is the same as RGB the space should be declared*. Unlike RGB, where you can assume sRGB, there is no one space in CMYK you can assume to hold true. There are some regional standards which you can guess. But without this info we will never truly know what was meant by the color without asking the author or last printer.

* In fact all color declarations have this property, except cie xyz and cie Lab. Simply values have no fixed meaning without colorspace declaration

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  • So where is the color profile assignment in Illustrator?
    – JDługosz
    Oct 28, 2015 at 7:09
  • @JDługosz More or less the same place as its in photoshop, under edit -> color settings (see docs)
    – joojaa
    Oct 28, 2015 at 7:15
  • Thanks, @joojaa. I keep getting lost in the menus. I still expect to find the document's profile under the File menu. Having Document Color Mode there but no named profiles through me off.
    – JDługosz
    Oct 28, 2015 at 7:37
  • Oh, I already accepted the answer, but comments are supposed to be non-normative and ephemeral. Could you edit that last line into the Answer, for posterity?
    – JDługosz
    Oct 28, 2015 at 7:38

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