same file renders differently on different machines

[richie20199]

I sync my project files in the cloud so I can work on different machines in different places.

I made a change to a book cover file (minor text change) on a second machine (needed to send revision to my printer), rendered it -- and the colors look different from the first pdf.  The settings on both are identical. The first pdf, rendered on a 64 bit Linux with Scribus 1.4.6, had colors that seemed washed, which didn't concern me since I attributed it to being 4 color and expect it will print out okay.  The second machine, a 32 bit Linux with Scribus 1.4.2, rendered out a file with sharp, deep colors -- no different looking than the RGB I was working on.  I compared the pdf's side by side on the same screen on more than one computer, so it's not a screen issue. The colors are different, yet both files were rendered with identical settings (but with different versions of Scribus and different machines). Why?

[jghali]

It is likely that on the 32 bit Linux with Scribus 1.4.2 your have ICC color profiles installed and none on your 64 bit Linux with Scribus 1.4.6. The washed CMYK colors are a typical symptom of the fallback CMYK color management being used. That fallback uses overly simplistic conversion formulas to perform RGB to CMYK or CMYK to RGB conversions

Also on Linux, not all PDF readers can properly render CMYK colors. Amongst these are Adobe own Acrobat Reader, which works correctly in that respect on other platforms, ie Mac and Windows, btw.