Lifting and sampling color in Photoshop

Photoshop lets you change foreground or background colors by lifting them from the image with the Eyedropper tool. Using the Eyedropper tool comes in handy when you want to sample an existing color in an image for use in another element. For example, if I want my text to be the same color as the flower in my image, I click a petal with my Eyedropper tool, which then lifts (samples) the color and makes it my new foreground color. I then create my type, which uses that foreground color. Voilà — color coordination at its finest. Here are some handy tips for using the Eyedropper tool to suck up color from one place and use it elsewhere in your image:

-->Choose any color you want from any image that’s open. If you have multiple images open, you can also click inside an image that you’re not working on. In fact, if that doesn’t knock your socks off, you can lift any color you see on-screen, even from a file in another application such as Illustrator or from your desktop. Just drag your Eyedropper from the image window onto the color you want to sample.

-->Choose your sampling area. You have only one option (found in the Options bar) to worry about when using the Eyedropper tool. You have the option of selecting the color of just the single pixel you click (Point Sample). Or Photoshop will average the colors of the pixels in a 3-x-3- or 5-x-5-pixel radius.

-->Make colors Web safe with a right-click of your mouse button. For you Webbies out there, if you right-click (Ctrl+click on the Mac) on your image to bring up the context menu, you have one more option — Copy Color as HTML. This option converts the sampled color to a Hexadecimal color code that’s safe for the Web and copies the code to the Clipboard so that you can paste the code into an HTML file.

-->Toggle between the Eyedropper and other tools. For your productive painting pleasure, when you’re using the Brush, Pencil, Gradient, Paint Bucket, or Shape tool, pressing Alt (Option on the Mac) allows you to temporarily access the Eyedropper tool. Release the key and return to your original tool.

-->Toggle between the background and the foreground. If the foreground color swatch is active, press Alt+click (Option+click on the Mac) with the Eyedropper tool to lift a new background color. If the background color swatch is active, pressing Alt+click (Option+click on the Mac) lifts a new foreground color.

To use the Eyedropper tool, you first need to decide whether you want to change the foreground or background color. Then follow these steps:
1. Select the foreground (or the background) in the Tools palette or the Colors palette.
2. Select the Eyedropper tool in the Tools palette (or press the I key).
Fortunately, the Eyedropper looks exactly like a real eyedropper.
3. Click the color in your image that you want to use.
That color becomes your new foreground (or background) color.