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Hi all,

Often I have to get the hex code from sampled color, for this we can use the Color Picker or by double clicking on the Color Chooser, the problem with any of this methods is that to show the hex info the color is applied to the layer and I just want to get the hex code without being applied the color to the layer/image.

Is there a way to do it?

Cheers,
Juan

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Thank you for the video, really appreciated, sadly there are couple of drawbacks with it 😔.

Firts issue is that it seems I cannot control the sample radius and the second issue is that I'm not able to copy the hex value.
 

Cheers,
Juan

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32 minutes ago, jc4d said:

Thanks, it is working for a pixel type layer which samples correctly but if you sample it on a Image type layer, the layer will be recolored.

Not sure if this is a "feature" or a bug.

Using the Color Picker Tool, which is on the Toolbar along the left side, it does not recolor the layer. Do not have the layer selected in the Layer Panel. I just tried this using 1-Image type layer, and 1-Pixel type layer.

Edited by Ron P.
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2 hours ago, jc4d said:

Thanks, it is working for a pixel type layer which samples correctly but if you sample it on a Image type layer, the layer will be recolored.

I updated the video (they come absurdly large for some reason, I have my remote desktop environment somehow confused at the moment) that shows the pixel, image and shape layers so you should be able to use the color picker on any type of layer.

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32 minutes ago, jc4d said:

but if you sample it on a Image type layer, the layer will be recolored.

Not sure if this is a "feature" or a bug.

That depends whether you have the option "Apply to Selection" ticked in the context toolbar or not

So, it is not a bug

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That's correct. Plus using the Color Picker Tool, you have control of how much of an area is sampled.

They could certainly improve this.

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6 minutes ago, jc4d said:

I understand, the thing is that the Color tab UI is not updating if the apply to selection is unchecked

It is updating the swatch next to the colour picker in the Colour Panel - that is how it is designed to work

7 minutes ago, jc4d said:

and why this happens only to Image type and not Pixel type,

If you read the Help File, it tells you that "Apply to Selection" is only designed to work with Vector objects

 

If you want to copy the hex values using the Colour Picker Tool just ensure you have no object selected when you use it, so that it does not change that object's colour

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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27 minutes ago, jc4d said:

why this happens only to Image type and not Pixel type

Only (Image) kind of raster objects (which, too, in Affinity apps are a bit confusingly called "vector" objects) will have, the fill color assigned to them, any change in their visual appearance. A pixel layer can have a color assignment but it does not appear to have any effect. I am not sure if the assignment could have an effect in some specific context, but if it is e.g. converted to an image resource in Publisher (Layer > Convert to Image Resource), the assignment is not retained.

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5 hours ago, Lagarto said:

Only (Image) kind of raster objects (which, too, in Affinity apps are a bit confusingly called "vector" objects) ...

Some users refer to them as "vector" or "vector-like" objects, but AFAIK the documentation does not. For example, in this help topic, there is this:

Quote

An image layer has a container which retains the placed image's original color space, resolution and physical dimensions (when placed at native resolution).

So technically I suppose we should be calling them container objects.

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6 hours ago, jc4d said:

I understand, the thing is that the Color tab UI is not updating if the apply to selection is unchecked...

As @carl123 mentioned, the small color swatch next to the dropper icon in the Color panel is updated when you use the Color Picker Tool.

It is a bit of a workaround, but if you want to copy the hex code of that color swatch, you can do so by first making sure either no layer or only a pixel layer is selected (so the color will not be applied to anything in the document), clicking once on that small swatch to set one of the large color swatches to its left to that color, & then double-clicking that large color swatch to open the Color Chooser window, where you can copy the hex value shown there to the clipboard.

This would be a lot easier to do if double-clicking on the small color swatch in the Color panel opened the Color Chooser window with that color preselected. So maybe add a feature request for that?

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23 minutes ago, R C-R said:

So technically I suppose we should be calling them container objects.

I am not sure what they should be called. In many ways pixel layers (objects) are similar to image layers (objects), the former, too can retain information on "original" DPI and physical dimensions (separately from the canvas), and a pixel layer can certainly be a container, and can also accept a fill color in a non-destructive way (even if not as a regular fill color). Raster brushes are called vector brushes in Designer because they have object-like properties or behvior so perhaps that's why "image" kind of raster containers are called by some users as vector objects.

pixel_vs_image.jpg.200ba87bdaa5e0dcb0d7995c24aee42f.jpg

 

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21 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

and a pixel layer can certainly be a container,

I would not call the pixel layer you showed a "container". It is a parent. A container hides its internals, and is a self-contained single object as far as the document is concerned. For example, if you have an embedded or linked file you cannot see the layers within it. All you see is one layer in the Layers panel. The same applies to an Image layer; only one layer in the Layers panel, and you cannot operate on its contents (pixels) directly. Your example has 3 layers, not one.

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

I would not call the pixel layer you showed a "container". It is a parent.

That is what I would call it. But I would never call an Image layer a vector object.

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27 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

would not call the pixel layer you showed a "container".

Personally I think that it is ok to use "natural language" and call something that contains a container. Whether it is "self-contained", or something else (e.g., a kind of an organizing container similarly as a group layer, or a layer layer, the function of which a pixel layer in Photo in many ways has) is once again only vaguely defined in the documentation. Calling it a "parent" is pretty much as informative as calling a clipping object or a mask a parent. Affinity apps are full of such confusing terms, starting from "layer". This is how the documentation "clarifies" the terminological confusion:

drawers.jpg.fd47c60f10ee59cf6d56f0b6e18420e6.jpg

 

 

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13 minutes ago, R C-R said:

But I would never call an Image layer a vector object.

I used the term because I have seen it been used in context of specifying which kind of raster objects can have tints and shades. But I agree that is not proper use of the term "vector". Similarly as it is improper in context of raster brushes.

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16 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

Calling it a "parent" is pretty much as informative as calling a clipping object or a mask a parent.

I think what is meant by a parent-child object relationship is reasonably clear. I see no problems using it to describe the difference between some object & whatever other object(s) might be indented below it in the Layers panel, or hiding behind the disclosure triangles in the panel.

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Here is little something to be clarified in terms of parenthood-container mindset, to explain how the selected pixel layer with a spot color assignment can have a coloring but does not take its current color assignment, while the object above, container within a container, does, yet its parent object, while also having a spot color assignment, will lose it and would become colored with process colors when exported. There is a curve object with raster content, rectangle shape with raster content, and pixel layers and image layers with raster content.

parents_not_containers.jpg.9074be40c4c212529bd8ea35f33409f3.jpg

There is nothing wrong with complexity but it does not much help to use simplistic terms to describe it.

Photoshop uses terms like vector smart object to distinguish certain kinds of objects (possibly containing only raster data) from other:

vectorsmartobject.jpg.28031ca2840af125e95d08f91f5013d6.jpg

Terms are not always intuitive and may be ambiguous because a specific structure can contain varied content (e.g. raster and vector data, miscellaneous meta data, file reference, etc). But it makes sense to try to make terminological distinctions so if some users see analogous behavior between image layers (whether parent or not) and vector layers, both of which can be manipulated as objects with attributes rather than destructively on pixel or node level, I can understand (especially when many users have PS background) why the term "vector" may come in mind. "Image" layer is fine by me, but its description might need comparisons to "vector" layers (as "curve" or "shape" are basically already reserved since these object types can contain raster content, as well, as above). 

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