Eyedropper tool
Sample a colour from your artwork, from one layer or from the screen, and send it straight to the Color panel, or borrow it for a moment from whatever tool you were already using.
The Eyedropper tool (I) has two options, Source and Size, and a small hint in the Tool Options bar: Click: Fill | Shift+Click: Stroke.
Sampling
Click on the canvas to sample the colour under the cursor. A crosshair marks the exact sample point while you hover. The sample happens on the click itself, not on release, so dragging does nothing extra: it only samples once, at the point you pressed.
Hold Shift while clicking to sample into the stroke colour instead of the fill.
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Source | All visible | All visible reads your artwork as it is composed, without the grid, onion skin, guides or handles drawn over it. This layer reads the selected layer on its own, even where other layers cover it. Screen reads exactly what is on screen, overlays included |
| Size | 1 px | Averages a square of 3×3, 5×5 or 11×11 pixels around the point, which evens out grain and noise in painted or photographic colour. Screen always reads one pixel |
Where the chosen source has nothing drawn, off the artwork or on a transparent part of the layer, the colour on screen is sampled instead.
Where the colour lands
A sampled colour always updates the active slot in the Color panel. It is written back into the artwork itself only when the selected layer is a Shape layer you can edit. Sampling with a Raster Cells, Pixel, Bone or Camera layer selected, or nothing selected, updates the Color panel and leaves the canvas untouched.
The temporary eyedropper
You rarely need to switch tools to pick a colour: hold Alt and click with almost any other tool active, and it samples a colour instead of doing that tool's normal job. This works everywhere except the Node, Pen and Bone tools, and Weight Paint while its paint mode is on. Those tools already use Alt for something else. The temporary eyedropper uses the Source and Size set on the Eyedropper tool.
| I | Eyedropper tool |
| Shiftclick | Sample into the stroke colour instead of the fill |
| Altclick | Temporary eyedropper from almost any other tool |