Reliable Color Picker Across Windows & External Apps

Quote from kath

Where do I post feature requests?

In the app itself, under Help menu, there is a feedback command that sends them directly to the developers.

While the color picker tool has never been able to do this, the color picker within the Color panel can (and, to the best of my knowledge, has always been able to). See my attached video.

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Quote from smadell

While the color picker tool has never been able to do this...

Actually, it can & does so in the same way as in V2, but it is not obvious. The trick is to first click & hold somewhere inside the document window. Then you can drag the tool into the desktop or any other window that is open & accessible.

If you want to pick from a different open document in the app itself, you can't do that if they are in different tabs so you have to drag one out into a new window. A PITA but it works.

That method with dragging the picker is broken at least on Windows currently. The overlay is stuck, some can escape it with ESC; I for example can't, I can only force close the app from the outside.

I mostly use the color picker from Windows PowerToys, it copies RGB hex by default, and then you can past the hex code in the RGB hex mode of the color picker in Affinity. Of course, when inside Affinity, I would prefer the internal color picker, as it uses the picked value directly.

Quote

That method with dragging the picker is broken at least on Windows currently. The overlay is stuck, some can escape it with ESC; I for example can't, I can only force close the app from the outside.

Likely it is a windows policy restriction.
Rightclick the exe or the shortcut and click the "Run as Administrator"option (you only need to do this once)
Use the pipette from the colors or swatches panel and not the "well" thingy or the alt+drag option as this will make the selector get stuck most of the time and you'll need to force close affinity.

Here's a portable color picker for windows
Pipette

Color pickup using the pipette outside the Affinity workspace does not work for me either.

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Quote from kath

Color picker drag from inside to outside doesn't work.

Are you certain that you are first clicking & holding the mouse button down somewhere inside the document window before dragging it out of there into some other part of your screen?

Like I said, this works for me in both Affinity Photo V2 & in V3.

Quote from komatös

Color pickup using the pipette outside the Affinity workspace does not work for me either.

It works for me, setting the third tiny color 'well' to the picked color. Have you authorized V3 to 'record' your screen in System Settings, which is the poorly labeled authorization needed to pick up colors from outside the app. (I has nothing to do with Affinity recording anything, since the app can't do that.)

Quote from kath

Settin 'record' your screen in System Settings>privacy was one of the first of my 25 attempts. Years ago I tried this in v2. Curiously it worked 1 time then stopped. Never made it happen again.

kath Are you certain you are holding down the mouse button when you click somewhere in the document window & then not releasing it until after you drag the pointer out of the document window & into some other item visible on your screen?

kath I realise this doesn't address the lack of functionality in the current version of Affinity, but depending on how important it is to your workflow, you might consider XScope. It's a power-house of tools that does a LOT more than just colour picking, so it might be overkill if that is your single purpose. Listed at USD 50/- for a license, but with a free trial so you can validate if it works for you.

I can definitely confirm that the V3 pipette doesn't work when dragged outside the app window;
while it works perfectly under similar conditions in V2.6.5, at least on macOS 12.7.6.

The issue I am talking about, and that worked fine in V2:

Windows

The color picker where you drag from inside the color spot to any place on the screen inside or outside affinity and pick up the color when releasing. It shows the correct color and can be dragged anywhere, but releasing the mouse button does not close the overlay that is attached to the mouse pointer and also does not pick the color (it is not visible in the spot I have been dragging from after releasing the button). This overlay does not close with ESC either, and at that point I have to force close the app to get rid of it.

I don't think it is a policy issue, that would be not very common in Windows. I tried opening affinity as admin and it did not change anything. Usually in Windows you do not need to set permissions explicitly for apps to "record the screen" and alike.

The actual color picker tool from the toolbar however only picks up colors from the workspace/canvas and works fine.

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Quote from R C-R

Are you certain you are holding down the mouse button when you click somewhere in the document window & then not releasing it until after you drag the pointer out of the document window & into some other item visible on your screen?

That's exactly how I do it. Affinity has the necessary access rights. It doesn't work for me with V2.6.5 either. No matter what I try.

Quote from ÐEKOS

Edited once, last by ÐEKOS: Better version of video (30 minutes ago).

It isn’t better for me! It doesn’t display on my (old) iPad; I’m guessing that it’s in 4K.