Eyedropper doesn't work on groups
When I select a group and I try to use the eyedropper tool, this seems to not work.
In the fill box in the toolbar it appears as the colour already changed, but the group still looks with the original colour.
If I ungroup the group, or if I unite the group with the pathfinder (plus cmd+8), then the eyedropper works regularly, but this is not the ideal way to work. I already contacted the support online, but the issue hasn't been sorted out properly.
I use MacOS High Sierra — Version 10.13.6
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My pleasure, Angeline. This tool is both easy and hard to embrace without some experimenting with Appearance panel. Official help lacks info on this behaviour.
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The SOLUTION might be to open the Eyedropper Tool options and untick top checkmarks in both columns. Otherwise your picked style goes under the 'Contents' (check the Appearance stack if you are experiencing this), and is obstructed by it.
'Unticked Appearance mode' is a default one and it seems that Ai sometimes changes these options without a user knowing. I already saw several reports about this.
Please comment if this solves it for you. -
David Craig commented
No apology necessary, Dana. I feel your pain! Clearly the devs at Adobe have no idea how to fix the issue, and that's why it keeps appearing in each and every AI update, despite numerous complaints.
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Dana commented
Another update, another illustrator version with a useless eyedropper tool. This problem has been around for so long that I've started to get used to annoying workarounds, but really nothing can replace it. Fact is, you will have to ungroup objects or waste a lot of time with the recolor panel or color panel to work around.
And I've had this problem for at least 4 or 5 years, with 3 or 4 dirfferent computers/ mac versions/ illustrator versions. This is the most annoying bug ever. Sorry for letting out my frustrations like this but really, can't this be fixed? I don't need any new and fancy features, just make the tools work that are already there ;___; -
Cris commented
Still an issue with 25.2
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Angeline King commented
While I am not sure I understand your explanation of why the 'Appeerance' box being checked prevents text and groups from adopting the desired fill with the eye-dropper tool, I was having this same issue and your suggestion fixed it for me.
Thank you, Egor! :)
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Jordan G. commented
Still an issue in 25.0
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Frustrated User commented
November 2020 v25.0 it's still a issue when using the Eyedropper to select a color within the art board on Mac OS Catalina 10.15.7. @Adobe can we get a fix for this?
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Anonymous commented
same
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Jeff D commented
T R A S H
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D3F commented
SAME.
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Derek Jenkins commented
Still an issue with version 24.2.3 on Windows 10.
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Derek Jenkins commented
Still an issue with version 24.2.3 on Windows 10.
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It looks like you have all options checked in Eyedropper tool’s options, right?
Text is a special kind of group that has your glyphs as live components inside. So when all options are checked for the tool, it grabs the fill color and applies it to whole group, covering individual fill of your glyphs! Try to untick 'Appearance' in both columns and see how it works after. -
abe.designer commented
Every single time I want to use the Eyedropper Tool on text or groups it simply does not work. For example. if a text or a group is black and I pick a color from, say, red shape, the color swatch changes to red, but text/group stays the same. Then I have to clik on the "None" right below the color swatch. That deletes the picked color from the color swatch (red) and leaves the original one (black). Then I press it again so that my text/group becomes empty. Then and only then the eyedropper tool does its job properly. But only with color. Properties are not picked up like they are for example in InDesign.
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Derek Jenkins commented
Still happening in the latest (24.2). It did fix a similar issue with eyedropper not applying color to text.
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cade commented
still having this issue April 2020 -- for illustrator cc 2019, Mac
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Gary Newton-Browne commented
Go to Edit>Recolor Artwork
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Mark Nicoll commented
Also true on PC, and it also won't apply ANY appearance settings from group to group, the result being that for complex appearances that require group settings, the eyedropper doesn't work.
Graphic styles kinda help here, but it would be better to have the eyedropper WYSIWYG. Of course it's going to be complex; if an objects appearance is a mixture of the groups and paths underneath, and the outer-most group's appearance, then does the eyedropper have to also pick up appearances from inside the group and apply those inside the target object? Seems like that could easily go wrong... so I don't know.
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Mark Nicoll commented
This is true. The eyedropper produces some unhelpful results with groups, or just doesn't work.
There are multiple ways to test the issue, the simplest being to make a path with a fill of one colour, then group it and apply a different coloured fill to that group. Duplicate that object, and remove the extra fill from the group. Then use the eye dropper to try and pick up the appearance from the 1st group. It'll pick up the colour of the path, hidden underneath the fill of the group, which is unhelpful.
A variation of this test is to apply an effect (eg. a 3D effect) to the group, instead of a fill. The eyedropper will ignore it entirely. Also unhelpful.
All of this is true even with the eyedropper settings correctly set.