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Why does the color picker tool in all studio panels work the way it does? Its so frustrating!


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Why does the color picker tool work the way it does in every studio panel? Its so frustrating. Let me explain. 

I'm not talking about the color picker tool in the tools icon. Keyboard shortcut (i)

I'm talking about the color picker icon in all the studio panels. Mainly color, swatch, and effects studio. You usually see it next to any swatch of color

So the logical thing you would think is you would select the color picker icon in the studio panels, pick a color of your choice, and what ever object you had selected before is going to change into that color you selected, right? No! It doesnt work that way! Heres how it works. So you can't click on the color picker icon in the studio panels to pick color. Its not a clickable icon. I dont know why. You would think you could click the color picker icon in the panels but you cant. Instead, you have to click on the color picker icon AND DRAG over the screen to start color picking whatever color you want, and then once you've selected your color, the swatch icon next to the color picker icon will change into the color you wanted. BUT WAIT! Its not going to change your object color you had picked with the color picker even though you picked the color already. You have to select the color swatch icon next to the color picker icon in order to apply that color. Like? Just why?!?!😡 Just change my color. Its not that hard. Its so annoying!! Like, its so many steps just to do 1 single thing. UGH!!! 

Just let me select the colorpicker icon, let me select the color i want, and done. My shape is now the color I wanted.

No. Instead, i have to click over the color picker icon, drag to select the color I want, have my color selected but not change the color of my shape just yet. I have to then click the color that I wanted in the swatch icon, and then my color is finally applied. Its just a mess and too many steps for something so simple. 

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I need these color pickers in these studio panels in the photo below with red arrows pointing at them to be "clickable icons" that when clicked on will turn into a color picker cursor (exactly how the color picker tool in the tools panel works) and when I select a color, I need the app to change my object to the color I selected. Don't make me have to click a swatch icon after I've selected my color in order for my color to be applied. Just change my color. 

 

Color Picker.jpg

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@MoonaticDestiny,

In case you didn't catch on yet, those color pickers can sample from anywhere on the screen, not just your document, and not just within the Affinity apps.

To make that possible, my guess is that the apps needed to set this up as a drag operation, since clicking on another app somewhere probably would not have been reported back to the Affinity app, and they probably don't have a good way to intercept it without jumping through sandbox/security hoops.

There is an actual color picker tool which does work the way you are requesting, but which only samples from within the document, and can't be used for the popup color pickers.

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3 hours ago, fde101 said:

In case you didn't catch on yet, those color pickers can sample from anywhere on the screen, not just your document, and not just within the Affinity apps.

Yes. I'm aware of that. I have no issue with sampling colors anywhere on the screen. 

3 hours ago, fde101 said:

since clicking on another app somewhere probably would not have been reported back to the Affinity app

I didnt think about that. Clicking on another app on the screen to sample color would probably not register as an action of sampling color but as an action to enter that app and exit affinity. I get it now. That would be an issue. Sigh. Ok. Click and Dragging is fine. My main, main issue is the color picker not changing the color of my object when I let got of click and drag. Thats frustrating me. Its having to click the swatch or color picker again to change my objects color.  

5 hours ago, fde101 said:

There is an actual color picker tool which does work the way you are requesting, but which only samples from within the document, and can't be used for the popup color pickers.

Yes. That tool is fine. It works. Theres nothing wrong with it and it samples the colors that I need with a simple click. Only that tool focuses on the color of a "fill." The color pickers in the other studios focus on the colors of a fill, stroke, or effect color. I can not use this tool to change the color of those colors. Those color pickers in the photo above are specifically for those studios. 

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9 hours ago, MoonaticDestiny said:

My main, main issue is the color picker not changing the color of my object when I let got of click and drag. Thats frustrating me. Its having to click the swatch or color picker again to change my objects color.  

What about if you are working on two documents and you want to choose a colour from one document and apply it to an object in the other document?

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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If you want to pick a colour from document A and use it in document B then, if the software worked the way you want it to, the software would automatically apply the colour you picked to whichever layer was selected in document A, you would then have to undo that, and then you could go to document B and do what you want. Or you would have to remember, every time you used a colour picker, to make sure you don’t have any layers selected in document A before you used the colour picker.

The way they work now you don’t need to remember to deselect or undo anything, you just pick and then apply when you need to.

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I like ot the way it works because, even if you have to do an extra step, you are able to “store” the selected color and then apply it where you want to.

I miss it when using other Apps.

Best regards!

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I've got another request about colour picker working in all affinity apps.

The request is more about working with colour books like PANTONE, and multiple entities of colour, so if I'm trying to pick Pantone colour with colour picker it gets converted to CMYK which is not preferred function by me. If I sample colour from for example other artwork, document etc. I would like to have that information passed to the new artwork with info about colour used, not manually looking for it in the books.
It would be great to have that functionality.

 image.png.39332315865e71b69e3bd9caa9c36242.png image.png.0436acb3e44d3c55daa68673bd6a43ee.png

 

I think an easy way to do it would be to connect colour books to colour panel - to read informations 

image.png.294db2cdbffb12f0db791f01e1701d86.png

and if I want to convert colour I can just switch pallete to whatever pallete I like either CMYK, HEX etc. and this way colour could be converted.
I would make like easier for people working with colour books.

 

Thanks in advance

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1 hour ago, LAdrian said:

I've got another request about colour picker working in all affinity apps.

This is unrelated to the current discussion, and would work better as a separate topic.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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1 hour ago, LAdrian said:

if I'm trying to pick Pantone colour with colour picker it gets converted to CMYK

The color pickers on the palettes sample the display color, not the color from the document - they must work that way as they can sample from anywhere on the screen, not just within the document or within the app - thus they always sample in RGB.

Given that the color picker tool only works within the document, you would think that would get it right and sample the actual underlying color, but sadly it does not.  I agree that this should be fixed for the color picker tool, but it would not be a sane behavior for the color pickers on the palettes.

All being said, as @walt.farrell suggested, this discussion should be moved to one of the various other existing threads on this subject, which is indeed different from what is being discussed in this thread.

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5 minutes ago, fde101 said:

The color pickers on the palettes sample the display color, not the color from the document - they must work that way as they can sample from anywhere on the screen, not just within the document or within the app - thus they always sample in RGB.

Given that the color picker tool only works within the document, you would think that would get it right and sample the actual underlying color, but sadly it does not.  I agree that this should be fixed for the color picker tool, but it would not be a sane behavior for the color pickers on the palettes.

Thank's for replying.

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

This is unrelated to the current discussion, and would work better as a separate topic.

You're right I might need to post it as a separate topic.

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On 12/8/2021 at 1:08 AM, GarryP said:

If you want to pick a colour from document A and use it in document B then....

Good lord, I was driving myself crazy a while back. Never thought to use this. Brilliant tip to use the Colour Panel or Swatches Panel's eye dropper to sample and store the colour from one document for use in another document.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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