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Why does Affinity Photos swap colours around when you select brush


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One thing that bugs me and don't know if its a setting but I select a colour with eyedropper tool and as soon as I select back my brush it automatically switches that recently selected colour to the colour behind the foreground colour circle and I have to click the double arrows to switch it back but why does it do this because I don't get why anyone would want it to do the auto switch when you select brush.

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That's how it is, and works. It's always annoyed the heck out of me.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

These are not my own words but I sure like this quote.

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A couple of workarounds for you:

  1. Don't switch to the Color Picker Tool. Stay with the Brush Tool, and press Alt to let it sample a color. Discussed briefly in the Help, here: https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Painting/painting.html
  2. Or, with the default keyboard shortcuts, press X to swap between the foreground and background colors.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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21 minutes ago, Chillr2021 said:

One thing that bugs me and don't know if its a setting but I select a colour with eyedropper tool and as soon as I select back my brush it automatically switches that recently selected colour to the colour behind the foreground colour circle and I have to click the double arrows to switch it back but why does it do this because I don't get why anyone would want it to do the auto switch when you select brush.

Hi @Chillr2021!

I can confirm that both the Paint Brush Tool and the Colour Picker tool will have their own default choice for whether to use the Foreground or the Background well colour - however it's certainly possible to have both tools using the same well simultaneously.

If you find the colour wells are swapping when changing tool, please do the following:

  • Select your first tool (ie Paint Brush), and take note of which colour well is in use.
  • Select your second tool (ie Colour Picker), then use X to swap the colour wells, so the same well is in use as previous.
  • Return to the first tool, which should now be using the same colour well.

I've attached a screen recording below, showing the expected behaviour when tools are using the same well, and when tools are using different wells, then the steps as above to return both tools to use the same wells:

I hope this helps :)

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

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37 minutes ago, Chillr2021 said:

as soon as I select back my brush it automatically switches that recently selected colour to the colour behind the foreground colour circle

The way I think of it....

The colour picker tool "always" sets the picked colour in the lower of the 2 colour wells

If you want the brush to always change to that colour, set the brush to always use that colour well by clicking on it (the lower of the 2 colour wells)

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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6 minutes ago, carl123 said:

The colour picker tool "always" sets the picked colour in the lower of the 2 colour wells

I must disagree. It sets the well that is active, that is, the one that is in front, which could be the upper or the lower well. (In Photo, at least.)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Which is why I wrote "always"

It can be changed, as also indicated by Dan C

But the default behaviour on opening a new image/document is to use the lower colour well

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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