Section 5.8. Copying Color with the Eyedropper


5.8. Copying Color with the Eyedropper

Tying color elements together is a subtlebut importantelement of good design. It's the same principle as accessorizing: Say you buy a white shirt with purple pinstripes. Add a pink tie, and you're a candidate for the Worst Dressed list. But a purple tie that matches the pinstripes somehow pulls the look together.

In Flash, you may find you've created a sketch and colored it just the right shade of green, and you want to use that color in another part of the same drawing. Sure, you could slog through the Color panel, write down the hexadecimal notation for the color and then recreate the color. Or, if you know you're going to be working a lot with that particular color, you could create a custom color swatch (Section 5.6). But if you want to experiment with placing bits of the color here and there on the fly, the Eyedropper tool's the way to go. The Eyedropper tool lets you click the color on one image, and apply it instantly to another color on another image.


Note: The Eyedropper tool lets you transfer color only from a bitmap or a fill to a fill, and from a stroke to another stroke. If you want to transfer color to a bitmap, you need the Magic Wand (Lasso).

To copy color from one object to another:

  1. Select Edit Deselect All .

    Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+Shift+A (Windows) or Shift- -A (Mac) to deselect everything on the Stage.

  2. From the Tools panel, click to select the Eyedropper tool .

    As you mouse over the Stage, your cursor appears as an eyedropper while it's over a blank part of the Stage; an eyedropper and a brush when it's over a fill (as shown in Figure 5-42, top); and an eyedropper and a pencil when it's over a stroke.

  3. Click the bitmap, fill, or stroke color you want to copy from (imagine sucking the color up into your eyedropper ).

    If you click to copy from a fill or a bitmap, your cursor turns immediately into a paint bucket, as shown in Figure 5-42 (bottom); if you click to copy from a stroke, the cursor turns into an ink bottle .


    Note: You can copy from a stroke, a fill, or a bitmap using the Eyedropper tool; you can't copy from a symbol or a grouped object.
  4. Click the bitmap, fill, or stroke you want to copy to (imagine squeezing the color out of your eyedropper). If you copied color from a bitmap or a fill, you need to click a fill; if you copied color from a stroke, you need to click a stroke .

    Flash recolors the to stroke, fill, or bitmap you click on, applying the from color to the to color as shown in Figure 5-42, bottom.

    Figure 5-42. Top: After you click the Eyedropper tool, your cursor changes to remind you what it's passing over. If it's over a fill or a bitmap, you see a little brush next to the eyedropper; it it's over a stroke, you see a little pencil next to the eyedropper. Here, the Eyedropper tool is selecting a fill (the oval).
    Bottom: Here, the paint bucket icon lets you know you need to click a fill.



Flash 8
Flash Fox and Bono Bear (Chimps) (Chimps Series)
ISBN: 1901737438
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 126
Authors: Tessa Moore

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