Color picker not accurate

[Tib]

I'm a digiscrap designer. When I have a color swatch from which to work, my color picker does not read the swatches accurately. I have to put the numbers in manually. I always have to make my own swatches, and even then sometimes the colors aren't quite the same and I have to correct them manually.

Is there some setting I'm missing? Or is this just a quirk?

Thanks for any help.:)

[Wendy]

Hi ...

... and welcome to the Village :)

OK so you have a colour swatch but when you click on it with the colour picker it gives you an incorrect colour ... is the colour swatch you are using a preprepared one ?

.. and how far off the original does it give you ?

Wendy

[Jeff Perry]

Tib, sometimes the "problem" is associated with how the actual sampling" takes place. Each color your eyes perceive on the screen can actually be made up up a number of different colored pixels.

Zoom in real close on an image until you see the actual pixels and you will see the differences between them up close, that seem to fade away as you zoom out.

When you sample using the eye dropper, the default setting is 1-pixel, which means that when you click on what you think is pink, you could actually be clicking on a gray-is pixel next to a red-ish pixel. You sample, and get gray!

The tool works the same when sampling for white balance, etc.

The solution is to set the eyedropper to sample either a 3-pixel grid or a 5-pixel grid.

Select the Color Swatch like you are going to change the foreground color and when the eyedropper appears, right-click and a pop up menu should show you what your settings are. I would recommend trying the 3-pixel settings, and if that doesn't improve the sampling, try 5-pixel.

Jeff

[Tib]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try it and hopefully I'll figure it out.

[Tib]

Jeff Perry gave me some advice that I'll try. Thanks for the quick responses.

[Tib]

I checked a new swatch I'm to use and the colors were spot on. I think perhaps the ones I had before were not good enough. Thanks for the advice. Now I know what to do if it happens again.

[Wendy]

Hi ...

It sounds like you were just using a sample from an image and not a set Elements colour swatches :)

So pleased that the new ones are working OK ..

Wendy