How do you select color from outside of Illustrator?

[nebo7]

Hey, does anyone know what happened to the color selector in Illustrator? In Photoshop, you can sample a color from anywhere outside of the app window by clicking and dragging with the eyedropper tool. I know you used to be able to do it in Illustrator too, but now it doesn't seem to be working. I tried googling the answer, but all I get are about a hundred people showing how to do it in 2012, 2013. Nothing newer than that, which leads me to believe that they much have changed something in a recent version of Ai. Not sure how to do it now. Basically, what I need to know is, How do you select color from outside of Illustrator these days? I have the most current version - Ai CC 2015.3 I believe.

Thanks much!

Ben

[neernitt]

Same issue.

Windows 10 , adobe illustrator cc 2017. Any workaround ?

[d0nut247]

print screen button - hit paste - eye dropper, delete screen grab...?

[nebo7]

eh... unfortunately, I think this is the best way to do this - you're right. I wish it worked the other way. Bummer.

Thanks though!

Ben

[AdmiralGomez]

To my knowledge, you can't use the eyedropper when you open the color picker.  But you CAN simply select an object, then just press "i" and the eyedropper will appear.  Click anywhere it and will populate the swatch on the toolbar with the color you selected and turn whatever object you selected that color.

[sabergfx]

I had the same issue but I figured out the problem and here is my story:

1. I had two monitors connected to my desktop PC.

2. One of the monitors was connected to my High-end Graphic Card and the other was connected to the integrated graphic on the motherboard.

3. Whenever I grabbed the eye dropper and dragged it over the monitor which was connected to the GPU, everything worked fine.

4. As soon as I turned to the monitor with the integrated Graphic, I would only get black (sometimes white), no matter what I drag over.

5. So the solution is if you are on a multiple monitor setup, then keep to the monitor your Illustrator is open on.

I had no such issues in Photoshop though, and everything works fine there. In other words. this is an Illustrator problem only.

[Department4]

Getting the same issue as original poster in AI 2021. Using eyedropper tool, I click within AI and then drag to an outisde window (image loaded in Safari) and despite hovering over a pink color, the eyedropper tool stays a dark grey. Frustrating. 

[Monika Gause]

Does Illustrator have the necessary privileges to record the screen in the system?

[defaultkitty · Accepted solution]

You have to set permissions to allow Illustrator to record your screen, as that's what it needs to do to sample outside itself.

Not sure on PC, but on Mac, it's under System Preferences > Security & Privacy, and then under the Privacy tab, you can select which apps you'd like to allow to "record"  the screen outside their app window.  

[hmnewberry]

Has anyone figured out how to do this on PC? I am unable to color sample from the web still and have tried everything.

[Ton Frederiks]

Maybe this is already in the manty answers, but did you try to hold down the Shift key while using the Eyedropper?

[hmnewberry]

Yes, I am using google chrome if that makes a difference

[Ton Frederiks]

I cannot check that (Mac), maybe use some workaround as described above.