sampling color from a website 3

[gsbbr]

I have been trying to use the eyedropper tool in Ill.10 to sample a color from a website. I followed the directions in the AI manual, to no avail. I have a second manual that doesn't address this at all.

I tried bringing the website offline, still no luck. Would someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Sorry -- I know this must be an elementary question.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Arjay418]

Gsbbr,

Can you offer a little more information? Did you do a screen capture of the website and then place that into Ill. 10? If so, I am pretty sure you're stuck. I dont' think you can sample a color in a bitmap image using the Illustrator eyedropper.

The best I think you can do is either sample the color in Photoshop using the PS eyedropper and use those values in Illustrator. (If you do this, make sure you're using the same color settings in both PS and ILL---more on that later if you need it.)

The other thing that might work is just to open the screen capture in Ill, then use a shape tool to create a shape right next to the color you want to sample. Then keep changing the fill color of that shape until it matches the one from the webpage---just trial and error, but it doesn't take too long.

Anyone have better ideas? This is a good question!

--rj

 

[dimoj]

Yes you can sample a colour from a bitmap in Illy. I think in 10 you had to hold down the shift key while using the eyedropper to do it.

Arjays suggestion about taking a screen capture of the web page was good but he should have mentioned that you need to copy that capture to a bitmap editor first (ie Photoshop) then save as a format which you can place in Illy (ie PSD).

Illys eyedropper will not work outside of the Illy window so you need to place the webpage into Illy to sample colours from it!!!

 

[gsbbr]

Thank you both. What is missing is that I don't know how to do a screen capture of a website. I tried valiantly a month ago, looking up all the wrong keywords I'm sure. Our hardware guy couldn't remember.

I tried again for this color sampling venture but was only able to copy text. Tried "working offline," but somehow that wasn't the solution, or I was missing something.

I bet this is the key to my problem. Can you help?

 

[Arjay418]

Gsbbr,

To do a screen capture, hold down the Alt key and hit "PrtScn" (Print Screen). Then open your image editing program and hit Ctrl+V (Paste) It should pop right up.

Thanks Dimoj for pointing out that part about copying the capture to a bitmap editor. I should have remembered that (Doh!)

--rj

 

[gsbbr]

Omigosh, so straightforward! Thank you both--a star for each of you. I opened it up in PhotoShop, and I was able to get the color I needed.

Thank you!

 

[Arjay418]

I'll give dimoj a star for teaching me that Shift + eyedropper samples a color from a bitmap. Amazing.

--rj

 

[dimoj]

Thanks arjay!

In Illy CS they've dropped that and the eyedropper will pick a colour off a bitmap without the shift modifier!

 

[ikswoktur]

Often when choosing colors from web sites and such it is a pain to do a screen capture, paste it into illustrator, select the color, then delete the graphic when you are finished... i use a tool -linked below- called color cop, which allows me to grab the color from anyting on your screen with a eyedrop tool and gives you the RGB and hex codes. just another option...

http://www.datastic.com/tools/colorcop/