Archive for May, 2007

If you work in Photoshop, you’ve probably used the Eyedropper tool at one point or another. Most users simply select the eyedropper tool and click on an area in the image to grab the color they want and that’s the end of it. But did you know there’s a more accurate way to select the color you want? When you use the Eyedropper tool, the default is to select one single pixel as a basis for the color you want to choose. So let’s say you want to choose the orange colored background in the photo above. If you use the eyedropper tool at it’s default, you might end up with a color you weren’t counting on due to the fact that there are many colored pixels that make up that orange, such as tan and brown, and the tool will only choose the one color that the curser is directly over. To get a better representation of the color you want, select the Eyedropper tool and go up to the toolbar and you will see “Sample Size” with a drop-down menu. Click the menu and select 3 by 3 average. This will look at a 3 pixel by 3 pixel area and average the colors to give you your selection, which is much more accurate and probably more closely represents the color you’re looking for.