The Eyedropper Tool within InDesign allows for a colour to be sampled from an image. This colour can then be easily turned into a swatch or used to recolour other artwork. The Option/Alt key can be used in combination with the Eyedropper Tool to dramatically speed up the sampling process.
TIMELINE
0:00 – Swatches refresher
- Out of the fill swatch and the stroke swatch, the one that overlaps the other has focus and will be changed when sampling a colour with the Eyedropper Tool.
0:53 – The Eyedropper Tool
- Keyboard shortcut: I
- By default, the Eyedropper icon leans to the right and is empty.
- Clicking on an image will sample that colour while changing the Eyedropper icon to lean to the left and be “filled” with digital ink.
1:27 – Creating a Swatch from a sampled colour
- This sampled colour can be turned into a Swatch by selecting the Flyout menu within the Swatches panel and choosing New Colour Swatch.
1:47 – Changing an objects colour with the Eyedropper
- Having sampled a colour with the Eyedropper, clicking on an item will change that items colour. Attention needs to be given as to whether the fill or stroke swatch has focus.
2:10 – Resetting the Eyedropper
- Hold down the Alt/Option key to be able to sample a new colour.
3:10 – Preselect objects for greater resampling speed
