Color Picker picks the wrong colour !

Question

Color Picker picks the wrong colour !

If I use the magnifier tool in the Mac OS X standard colour picker (to select a colour off the screen), the colour that is selected is not the correct colour ! For instance, if I have a block of colour in an image - say a gif file - and then use colour picker to select the colour, the colour ends up being the wrong shade.

When I select the colour it is shown with a tiny grey corner in the top right, and if I hover the mouse over it, a tooltip saying "Device RGB" pops up.

I'm assuming that this is something to do with the display calibration I have set up - but I have the display calibrated so that it looks right - now how can I get it so that a colour selected off the screen is accurate !?

Most confused....

Powermac G5 Dual 1.8, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 30, 2006 11:34 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 30, 2006 1:16 PM in response to Andrew Rennard

The .gif format only includes colors sent with the file. And they have, at best, only 256 colors.
Netscape browser uses a different set of "colors". So does Mac and Window .gif files.
If your file doesn't "include" the color you can't select it.
What is your goal with the .gif file?

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Answer 2

Mar 31, 2006 5:11 AM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Which colour picker ? The standard Mac OS X Cocoa colour picker. The thing you use to choose the colour of a font. I wish I could post screen shots !

Here you go - System Preferences -> Appearance -> Highlight Color -> 'Other...' = that colour picker.

Now, see the main colour swatch ? to the left is a magnifying glass icon. If you click it, you can move the mouse over the screen and sample any colour.

The reason I want to pick the colour of a .gif file is so that I can create a complementary colour scheme for a web site, base of this sample colour I've been supplied (and yes, I understand about indexed colour in gifs, this is not the issue).

Now, if I try and do this, the colour that's sampled is wrong ! It doesn't match. Even more bizarrely, even when it does appear to match, if I cut'n'paste the newly created graphic (or whatever I'm colouring), the colour changes at that point !

I'm pretty sure this is something to do with display profiles, but I can't' figure out what....

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 31, 2006 11:52 AM in response to Andrew Rennard

System Preferences -> Appearance -> Highlight Color -> 'Other...' = that colour picker.
Thanks for the clarification. It works here. What happens if you use the DigitalColor Meter.app or the color option in ColorSync's Calculator tab? Have you tried using any of Apple's profiles, such as the Generic RGB?

BTW, I figured out what you meant by off the screen. I misinterpreted that as not on the screen, but as I now understand, you meant from the screen. Good luck, I'm out of ideas.

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Answer 4

Jun 16, 2006 9:27 AM in response to Andrew Rennard

I'm having the same exact problem. I thought initially this was the fault of Photoshop CS2, but when I did some experimenting I discovered that the Apple Color Picker did in fact sample colors incorrectly! This happens on both my work machine (Dual G5 - 10.4.7) and my home machine (don't laugh - G4 1ghz 10.4.7).

Hers is a QT movie of the problem in action:
http://medulla.ambrosiasw.com/~marcus/applecolorpicker/12395a.mov

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Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Mar 30, 2006 12:52 PM in response to Andrew Rennard

What's Color Picker? Are you talking about the DigitalColor Meter.app or the color option in ColorSync's Calculator tab? Additionally, how does one select a colour off the screen?

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Answer 6

Mar 31, 2006 5:16 AM in response to Andrew Rennard

http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/
I use the free tools at that Site.

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