Colour picker improvements

[RocketBoots]

In Illustrator it's quick and easy to sample a colour and apply it to a new shape - using the colour picker you can select a colour, and then use alt+click to apply it.

I haven't been able to replicate this functionality in Affinity Designer - though please let me know if I've missed something! If it doesn't exist, I'd love to see this functionality since it's a real time saver.

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @RocketBoots.

 

There are two colour pickers in Affinity Designer. The Colour Picker Tool {I} on the left of the workspace immediately applies the picked colour to any selected objects, but the eyedropper in the Colour panel merely stores the picked colour in the well next to the icon (requiring a click on that well to apply the colour). It follows that if you want the picked colour to be applied automatically to the fill or the stroke of new shapes, you should use the Colour Picker Tool; before you use it, go to the Colour panel and click on the fill circle or the stroke ring to bring it to the front so that it's in focus when you pick the colour that you want to apply.

 

[RocketBoots]

Hi Alfred - thanks for the reply.

Using the method you describe is still slower than Illustrator - the advantage with Illustrator is that you don't need to select any shapes. Select the colour picker, use it as you normally would to select a colour, then (with the picker still selected) simply hold the Alt key: Now the colour picker will apply the colour to any shapes you click it on - basically it acts like the paint bucket tool in PS until you release the Alt key. 

[Alfred]

I think I misunderstood what you were asking for! In your OP you mentioned "a new shape", which I took to mean a shape that you hadn't drawn yet.

 

If you create a style from a shape which has the fill and stroke characteristics that you want to use, you can drag its swatch from the Styles panel and drop it on the target object, but that isn't particularly quick.