Photoshop Color Sampler Tool

Before we were treated to the delights of Kuler, Photoshop users were able to find the colour details in an image with the Color Sampler Tool. Now it lays quietly hidden but it really shouldn’t, its a hugely helpful tool.

The Color Sampler Tool lives with the other eyedropper tools, along with the Ruler, Note and Count Tools.

Once selected, your pointer will change to this eyedropper with a target.

The contextual menu has just one option, Sample size. Like the Eye Dropper Tool Photoshop is asking how much surrounding the click point should be analysed.  Point Sample will look only directly under the sample point, pixel perfect, where the others take a look further afield and average out the colour.

Note: The Sample Point it the tip of the eye dropper, not the crosshair.

Now, when you click on the image several things will happen;

• A Mark will be left on your image, with a consecutive number by it marking where you clicked.
• Your Info Palette will pop up.
• Colour details will be numbered and given in your colour space choice. In my case here, RGB.

Changing this to a different colour space is easy enough, just click on the little eyedropper next to the colour details and a drop down menu appears, you can choose from a whole host of other colour spaces.

If you feel that the Sample Point isn’t in the right place, move your eyedropper over the point and your pointer will change. Now you can click and drag the point to a new location. You can create up to four sample points.

A great little tool that can be incredibly helpful.