illustrator 2018 - eyedropper tool doesn't pick-up properties

[paulc1491078]

Hi,

I've updated to the latest version of illustrator 2018 and found a bug relating to the eyedropper tool.

It doesn't pick up the properties especially with text styles. I have one style of text, use the eyedropper to copy the style to the other and doesn't work.

It picks up colour but very oddly picks up shades as well and not the solid colour of the object.

How do I fix it or must i wait for an update?

thanks

[Wingmanmatt]

[Monika Gause]

Your blue color got applied below the black color. You can see that in the Appearance panel.

You can either:

- select the letters with the text tool and then pick up color

- or move the fill on top of the "Characters"

[MichaelAlly]

This behavior has absolutely changed in recent versions. It didn't used to do this. Why on earth would I want to add a secondary fill to my text that goes underneath it????

If I select text, then eyedropper on a colored shape, my text should now take the color of the shape I just selected. It's not happening. Please fix.

[Raghuveer_Singh]

Hi All,

Apologies for the inconvenience caused by this issue.

Will it be possible for you to share a sample file of the issue & also a screen recording of the issue which you are observing with that sample file?

It will help me to better understand the problem.

Please share with sharewithai@adobe.com and also do share this forum link in that mail.

With Best Regards,

Raghuveer Singh

Illustrator Team

[MichaelAlly]

Sent an example file with explanation! Thanks Raghuveer and team.

[lidubot]

This is absolutely new behavior. Now, if I am working with grouped vector objects, the eyedropper picks up some weird phantom "group" color, instead of the color being shown. This slows down things incredibly, since for example, I can't keep my groups and have to ungroup things constantly, which sucks, especially in huge illustrations with thousands of grouped objects.

Having to keep an eye in the Appearance panel and move things is a very tedious workaround, so that is NOT a solution. I want the eyedropper to pick up the color of the object. Why would I want to have a group with a color for individual objects and another color for the group?

[Monika Gause]

lidubot  schrieb

This is absolutely new behavior. Now, if I am working with grouped vector objects, the eyedropper picks up some weird phantom "group" color, instead of the color being shown. This slows down things incredibly, since for example, I can't keep my groups and have to ungroup things constantly, which sucks, especially in huge illustrations with thousands of grouped objects.

Does it work when you press Shift while picking up the color? You have to make sure that stroke resp fill is focused correctly.

If you want to report this as a bug, please do so over there: http://illustrator.uservoice.com

That is the place the engineers read.

[lidubot]

Hi, Monica

Thank you for your reply.

Pressing Shift works, but only partially. For example, if you are trying to apply the color of a grouped vector to a vector, sampling directly doesn’t work, but pressing shift does (I never before had to press shift to do this).

But if you are trying to apply the color of a grouped vector to type, it either applies clear or white (mind you, nothing is white). This makes no sense. If I have type, and I want my type to be the same color as these vectors that are grouped and red, why do I have to ungroup?

Again, this is new behavior. I’m not sure if this is a bug or is this is some new way of doing things that is just not very useful. Like, I don’t understand the logic behind it, so I don’t know if this is a feature or a bug. It definitely feels random to me. But since “Shift” is now a thing, I’m beginning to think this is by design.

L

[Monika Gause]

lidubot  schrieb

Hi, Monica

Thank you for your reply.

Pressing Shift works, but only partially. For example, if you are trying to apply the color of a grouped vector to a vector, sampling directly doesn’t work, but pressing shift does (I never before had to press shift to do this).

But if you are trying to apply the color of a grouped vector to type, it either applies clear or white (mind you, nothing is white). This makes no sense. If I have type, and I want my type to be the same color as these vectors that are grouped and red, why do I have to ungroup?

Again, this is new behavior. I’m not sure if this is a bug or is this is some new way of doing things that is just not very useful. Like, I don’t understand the logic behind it, so I don’t know if this is a feature or a bug. It definitely feels random to me. But since “Shift” is now a thing, I’m beginning to think this is by design.

L

Please report it on Uservoice.

[Wingmanmatt]

Ah, thanks Monia.  Did something change with the latest Creative Cloud version?  I've never had this issue before.

[Monika Gause]

This has not changed. There's one other thing you can do: Shift-click the color you want to pick. Make sure the fill is focused when you want to apply the color to the fill.

[Wingmanmatt]

Stange.  Like I said I've never come across this before, I'm no illustrator expert, but thought I knew my way around the package.  Thanks for your help.

[KShinabery212]

I noticed this when doing complicated/detailed images like the one below.

What I end up having to do is ZOOM IN very close to pick up the desired thing I want to copy using the eye dropper tool. If I do not zoom in it will not select the right element.  I got used to it over time and now I just zoom in quickly to select the color or effect that I want to repeat.

Hope that helps.

[rugi000]

Same problem here. I've been using illustrator since 1998. For me the eyedropper doesn't seem to want to pick up bitmap colors. If I place an image, or paste a screenshot I cannot grab any of those colors.

[Monika Gause]

rugi000  schrieb

Same problem here. I've been using illustrator since 1998. For me the eyedropper doesn't seem to want to pick up bitmap colors. If I place an image, or paste a screenshot I cannot grab any of those colors.

Press Shift to pick up colors from photos.

[rugi000]

Nice! Thank you.

[rugi000]

It seems I'm still having issues. After a while illustrator decides it doesn't want to eye-drop colors any longer. Also, I'm unable to fill with ANY color until I delete the fill color and add a new one from the swatch panel.

[billwitwer]

Same problem here. I'm finding that if your object (that the color is being applied to) is a compound path such as text converted to outlines, it won't apply, although it appears to be applied in the Fill color box. If I release the compound path, it will apply properly. I usually ungroup as many times as necessary, expand appearance AND release and reapply compound path for this to work. Definitely something Adobe needs to fix.

[jkauspedas]

I tried deleting all of CC, and use CC Cleaner Tool. The problem continues. The following explains my difficulties:

It seems to have something to do with the layer "overrides/additions." The last version or two ago, if you selected an entire layer using the empty circle in the layers palette, you could apply strokes/fills IN ADDITION TO the strokes/fills that were already on the objects. This was nice if I wanted to add a uniform layer transparency for drawing on top of something temporary.  It was a nuisance otherwise as I often used that as an easy layer specific Select-All.

I could get around it by locking all layers and using CTRL-A. Now, that triggers the layer override/addition selection. What's worse, is if there is a group, selecting it creates an override/addition for the group.

If you use the eyedrop tool, it may be choosing the item or the group or the layer. Which is why it rarely works as supposed to. And even if it does, it will most often only add the style to the layer or the group rather than the individual objects. That means you can have a dashed stroke on top of a magenta line.

This is why you can't select colors out of an image, because the layer style is none/none.

Incidentally, half the time "overrides" will not copy into photoshop if they were created by using the eye drop tool.

My only workaround:

Select everything I want to change. If possible ungroup, then click on "none ( / )" a few times for stroke and fill. then use the eye dropper tool. Or manually change.

[felixn84556486]

Is it for grouped objects? What seems to work for me, though very inconvenient, is select the group, press ctrl+shift+g (ungroup) a couple of times, to ungroup it to single objects, and then WITHOUT DESELECTING, using the eyedropper tool, then pressing ctrl+g again to group the whole thing.

Not something that fixes the bug, if we are dealing with the same one, but a workaround nontheless.

[ilGioria]

Please fix this! I'm going to move to Sketch

[Monika Gause]

@ilGloria: WHat exactly do you want to be fixed as this thread covers different issues. Please create your own new thread if possible as this one is unusable already because it's too long.

[MeloniousFunk]

Yep...not working for me either. I'm so disappointed. I finally moved from CS6 to CC because I have to and my workflow is totally crunched by things like this.  Bummed, feeling exploited since I have to pay 30 times more for the CC product.

[Adam5E5B]

Nope not applying appearances for me either. Trying to click 3d extrude & bevel of an object.

So I just made a graphic Symbol of it .

But it used to work with the eyedropper tool

[Phil27649595wmfh]

Has this ever been fixed? I've been having that issue lately too.