changing stroke color with eye dropper?

[Sara_Seeton]

how can i change the stroke color of a shape using the eye dropper?  each time i try to do it, it fills the shape rather than changes just the stroke color.  i am trying to match the color from something other than a color that is what's on the color palette.

does that make sense??!

[Wade_Zimmerman1 · Accepted solution]

As strange as this might sound this is what you have to do.

Double click the eyedropper tool in the tool bar, a dialog box will show up. In that dialog box uncheck Focal Fill on both sides. Make certain Strokes and its options for color etc are checked.

and click OK  now when you. Now you will only change the stroke.

[Soozapalooza]

Didn't work for me. I'm new to this, so I don't get what it did, exactly, but it felt inconsistent. Before I did that, it would fill the center even though I'd select the stroke box and then the color, but after, it wouldn't even do that when I'd click on the fill box and pick the color I actually wanted in the center---instead it put a ? there.

[Aadarsh_27]

What you can do is switch fill and strokes options (X shotchut), and then Shift+click which color you want to apply it will apply to the stroke only. Hope it Helps 🙂

[YEmotionYusic_Pectorizer]

Thanks, it work! ❤️ Btw should include select eyedropper tool before the word shift + click.  

[Zeno_Bokor · Accepted solution]

select the object you want to change, make the stroke active and Shift+click with the eyedropper on the color you want. The only problem is that you can't pick up patterns this way, only the exact color that you clicked on gets applied

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

Zeno has this correct and I have the hard way of doing this I thought asmuch and trashing the preference I can do this myself.

Thanks Zeno.

You should mark Zeno's post as the answer.

There probably lots of people who should know where the answer is located when they do a search.

[prbmotion]

Agreed. Zeno has got it down.

[Nandy_me]

Thanks man your answer is really helpful even after 11 years. 

[lavanyaasehgal]

so you mean there is a feature to pick up patterns? please tell me about it.

[Monika Gause]

"so you mean there is a feature to pick up patterns? please tell me about it."

CHeck all in the eyedropper options and you can pick up patterns. Or what is it you want to do?

[lavanyaasehgal]

i'm imitating an image. there are some floral patterns in the image that i wish to pick up (like a stamp tool). i've started using illustrator just two weeks ago and so i have very less information about it. help?

[Monika Gause]

Please show.

[lavanyaasehgal]

 this floral pattern.

[tromboniator]

No, you can't use the Eyedropper tool to pick up a pattern from a photograph or other raster (pixel) image. You can crop a portion of the image and create a pattern from it, or recreate it as vector art and make a pattern from that.

[California Gold]

Is this still the correct answer in 2022? I keep trying this over and over and I can't figure out how to make my stroke match another color in any way at all.

[Monika Gause]

From what are you picking up a color? A placed image?

To what are you applying color?

Which document color mode is it?

Without any detailed information your question canot be answered.

[tejoa31474572]

Thanks a lot Zeno for making my life easier!

[scrumplestiltskin]

Make sure you're clicking the stroke path with your eyedropper. If you don't you will change the fill color of the object you have selected. I believe that is the answer to your question. It may also be helpful to check your eyedropper options, which you can access by double-clicking the eyedropper icon in the tools panel. Once you're there, see if the Appearance checkbox is selected on the upper, left-hand corner of the Eyedropper Options dialog box. I hope this information helps.

[etiennea11068568]

All I had to was click shift this whole time?? I've been struggling with this issue for too long. Each time I would add the color to swatches and it was this whole thing, lol.

[Daryl22544370b5z7]

I couldn't figure out how to do it the way Zeno proposed. So, I ended up just saving the color to my swatches and using it that way. 

[Claudio23296534r1tb]

This doesn't work for me either as of 02.2022. The last reply here that reported it working was from 2020, so maybe something has changed since?

[Doug A Roberts]

Works fine on Illustrator 26.0.3, Windows 10.

Are you ensuring that Stroke is active first?

[Claudio23296534r1tb]

If by ”ensuring your Stroke is active first” you mean having the Stroke color picker window open, then yes. Picking the eyedropper however closes it, and even if I Shift-click the wanted color while having an object selected, it applies to the Fill only. I also tried adjusting the Eyedropper properties to exclude it from applying on Fill, but it still doesn’t work.

[Doug A Roberts]

I mean having the stroke active in the tools panel: