Creative Tip: Use the Photoshop Eyedropper Anywhere!
I love uncovering basic tricks I should’ve already known. This is a great one that will save me time almost every day.
Need to match a color from a web page or something else while working in Photoshop? Just click with the eyedropper tool somewhere in your Photoshop file, and drag the cursor off to sample colors from anything visible on your screen.
That’s it!
This eyedropper trick has apparently worked since Photoshop 7. Wish I’d known that a few years and a couple thousand screenshots ago!
Popularity: 2% [?]
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 am
Simply amazing!!! you’ll save many hours of all designers around the world, they’ll use their computers less hours, energy consumption will be reduced and our kids will have a healthier planet to live. Do you realize the impact of your post!!!?
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:06 am
Ha! While I do’t think this is going to save the planet, Sabo, this trick is certainly going to save me a couple of minutes every week.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 am
Maybe I got shock by the magnificent simplycity of the trick and pump up a little bit my reaction, anyway it’s great tip
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:43 am
Awesome! No more grabbing a screenshot and pasting it into PS just to sample a color. Thanks!
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
yeah I’ve been making zillions of screenshots also… this is a lovely tip!
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I feel kinda stupid not knowing that before now. Thanks for sharing that’s going to save a ton of time.
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
That is useful. All this time I’ve been using Apple’s DigitalColor Meter to read the 8-bit values & manually entering them into PS’s color palette.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 am
May i be the only one that don´t undesrstand this trick? I can, as alway, sample a color with the eyedropper anywhere within the document but if i point elsewhere outside the document window (i.e. a webpage) nothing happens, i only achieve to select that window… what i am missing?
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:19 am
Rubén, the trick is to click inside a Photoshop document with your eyedropper and then, while still holding down the mouse button, dragging that eyedropper to sample colors outside the document window. Don’t click elsewhere, make sure to click in the Photoshop window and then drag out onto the rest of your screen.
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I first came across this when a friend was using Flash. I’ve been using it in Fireworks ever since. Great tip.
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
hahaha it´s perfect! i didn´t realize about the fist step: to click on the document itself and then drag to anywhere. in fact it´s going to save me lots of screenshots. thanks guys!
June 28th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Awesome, thanks! I knew I’d done it before, but couldn’t for the life of me remember how it had happened, so thanks for that, such a huge time saver!
June 29th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Wow, I wish I knew that earlier!
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:25 am
amazing~thanks ^-^
but I do not know how much applies to working~
August 1st, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Okay, so I knew this several times over the years but then forget about it! This time I’m going to use it over and over until it becomes second nature, it sure would save all those screenshots filling up my drive! Thanks for the useful tip!
March 30th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Thanks, easiest solution yet!