To color grab in Procreate, press and hold on the canvas with your finger or Apple Pencil, which opens the Eyedropper and samples the color under it. Drag to preview shades, then release to set that color as your active color. If you need a different trigger, open Actions (the wrench icon), then Preferences, then Gesture Controls, and change the Eyedropper activation method there.

How to Color Grab on the Canvas

The eyedropper is Procreate's color grabber. Out of the box, touch and hold does the job:

1. Open your artwork, or import an image from Actions > Add > Insert a photo.
2. Press and hold on the pixel or area you want to sample.
3. A loupe appears showing the sampled color. The new color sits on top and the previous color stays visible beneath it, so you can compare them directly.
4. Drag around to preview other pixels in real time.
5. Lift your finger or Pencil to confirm. The sampled color is now your active color and ready for any brush.

Two habits make this more reliable. First, hold still for a beat before dragging so the loupe settles on the area you intended. Second, remember that a sample reflects what the eyedropper is reading, so on layered artwork, hidden or low-opacity layers can give you a different result than what you see on screen. If a grabbed color looks wrong, check your layer visibility and blend modes before blaming the tool.

Set Up the Eyedropper for Your Workflow

If you grab colors constantly, the default gesture may not be the fastest option. Customize it:

1. Tap the wrench icon (Actions) in the top-left corner.
2. Go to Preferences.
3. Choose Gesture Controls.
4. Select Eyedropper.
5. Pick the activation method that fits how you work, such as touch and hold, or a shortcut assigned through QuickMenu.

Many illustrators leave touch and hold on because it needs no extra tap. Others assign the eyedropper to a QuickMenu slot so it doesn't trigger accidentally during fast linework. Neither is better in principle. Pick the one that doesn't interrupt your strokes.

How to Color Grab From a Reference Image

Sampling from a reference is a common stumbling block, and it works differently from sampling the canvas. If you load a reference through the Reference Companion, you can press and hold on the reference image to activate the color picker. According to Procreate user discussions, this works even if your eyedropper isn't normally set to touch and hold, and you can't adjust the hold duration for it. Expect it to feel a little slower than your usual gesture.

This is the cleanest method when you don't want a photo sitting on a canvas layer. Your artwork stays uncluttered, and you avoid accidentally painting over or merging a reference layer. The tradeoff is that it only samples the reference, not your canvas, so you'll switch between the two methods as you work.

If sampling from the reference doesn't seem to work, try these checks:

• Make sure you're pressing on the reference image itself, not the canvas behind the panel.
• Hold slightly longer than you would on the canvas.
• Confirm the reference is an image and not a canvas-based reference.

Save Grabbed Colors to a Palette

Grabbing colors one at a time is fine for a handful of tones. For a full set of colors you want to keep, use the Palettes tab in the Colors panel. Procreate lets you create your own palettes and import existing ones, so you can collect the colors you grab from a reference frame, a film still, or a photograph in one place.

After creating the palette, set it as your active palette. The active palette shows at the bottom of the Color Disc, Classic, Harmony, and Value tabs, so your swatches stay one tap away while you paint.

Use Color History and Previous Color to Move Faster

Procreate keeps a Color History of the last ten colors you used. It appears in the Color Panel on the Disc, Classic, Harmony, and Value tabs, and you can clear it when you want a clean slate. The history is empty when you open a new artwork, and each new color pushes the oldest one out.

This pairs well with eyedropper work. If you sample a color, tweak it, and then realize the original was better, you don't need to resample. Open the history and tap the earlier color. When you drag the reticle on the color disc, a split circle shows the color you're hovering over beside your most recent color, which makes subtle comparisons easier.

On Procreate Pocket, the active color swatch has extra tricks: press and hold it to switch between your current and previous color, or drag it onto the canvas for ColorDrop, which flood-fills an area with your selected color until it hits a boundary like an outline.

Check and Record Exact Values

Once you've grabbed a color, you often need to know exactly what it is. Open the Colors panel and switch to the Value tab. It offers precision sliders along with numerical and hexadecimal values, which makes it the right place for exact color matching. Note the hex code if the color needs to land in another application.

A few practical checks:

• Compare against the original. Use the loupe's new-versus-previous display to see whether your sampled color differs from what you were painting with.
• Fine-tune on the Value tab. If the sample is close but not right, nudge it with the sliders instead of resampling.
• Save keepers to a palette. Anything you'll reuse should go into a palette, not live only in the history, since the history rolls over after ten colors.

Common Problems When Color Grabbing

The eyedropper doesn't trigger. Check Gesture Controls to confirm the Eyedropper is assigned to the method you're using. If you changed it to a QuickMenu slot and forgot, a touch-and-hold won't do anything.

You sample the wrong color. Check which layer is active and what's visible. Sampling can be thrown off by overlapping layers, transparency, or adjustments applied elsewhere in the stack.

The reference won't sample. Press and hold directly on the reference image and give it a moment, since that hold duration isn't adjustable.

The color shifts when you paint. If a brush has color dynamics, opacity, or blending behavior, the stroke may not match the swatch exactly. Test on a blank layer with a plain brush to confirm that the swatch itself is right.

History vanished. It only holds ten colors and starts empty on a new artwork. Save important colors to a palette.

Carrying Procreate Colors Into a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, animators, and VFX artists, Procreate is often where look development starts: a quick paint-over, a style frame sketch, a palette study. The color work only pays off when it carries cleanly into After Effects, Nuke, Blender, or Cinema 4D.

The simplest reliable handoff is by value. Read the hex code from the Value tab and enter it in your compositing or 3D application. Keep a small swatch sheet in your Procreate file, with each color labeled by role such as shadow, key, accent, or background, and export it alongside your frames. Whatever you do, check how color is managed on each side. A color-management mismatch between your Procreate file and your compositing project's working space is a common reason a color looks right on the iPad and different in the timeline. Decide on a working space early, and verify by sampling the same pixel in both places.

Quick Reference

Final Thoughts

Color grabbing in Procreate comes down to one gesture and a few settings. Learn the eyedropper trigger, know that reference images sample slightly differently from the canvas, and use palettes and the Value tab to lock colors down. From there, the main job is making sure those colors survive the trip into your motion pipeline, whether that's through hex values, a labeled swatch sheet, or style references that guide the next stage of production.

To color grab in Procreate, press and hold on the canvas with your finger or Apple Pencil, which opens the Eyedropper and samples the color under it. Drag to preview shades, then release to set that color as your active color. If you need a different trigger, open Actions (the wrench icon), then Preferences, then Gesture Controls, and change the Eyedropper activation method there.

How to Color Grab on the Canvas

The eyedropper is Procreate's color grabber. Out of the box, touch and hold does the job:

1. Open your artwork, or import an image from Actions > Add > Insert a photo.
2. Press and hold on the pixel or area you want to sample.
3. A loupe appears showing the sampled color. The new color sits on top and the previous color stays visible beneath it, so you can compare them directly.
4. Drag around to preview other pixels in real time.
5. Lift your finger or Pencil to confirm. The sampled color is now your active color and ready for any brush.

Two habits make this more reliable. First, hold still for a beat before dragging so the loupe settles on the area you intended. Second, remember that a sample reflects what the eyedropper is reading, so on layered artwork, hidden or low-opacity layers can give you a different result than what you see on screen. If a grabbed color looks wrong, check your layer visibility and blend modes before blaming the tool.

Set Up the Eyedropper for Your Workflow

If you grab colors constantly, the default gesture may not be the fastest option. Customize it:

1. Tap the wrench icon (Actions) in the top-left corner.
2. Go to Preferences.
3. Choose Gesture Controls.
4. Select Eyedropper.
5. Pick the activation method that fits how you work, such as touch and hold, or a shortcut assigned through QuickMenu.

Many illustrators leave touch and hold on because it needs no extra tap. Others assign the eyedropper to a QuickMenu slot so it doesn't trigger accidentally during fast linework. Neither is better in principle. Pick the one that doesn't interrupt your strokes.

How to Color Grab From a Reference Image

Sampling from a reference is a common stumbling block, and it works differently from sampling the canvas. If you load a reference through the Reference Companion, you can press and hold on the reference image to activate the color picker. According to Procreate user discussions, this works even if your eyedropper isn't normally set to touch and hold, and you can't adjust the hold duration for it. Expect it to feel a little slower than your usual gesture.

This is the cleanest method when you don't want a photo sitting on a canvas layer. Your artwork stays uncluttered, and you avoid accidentally painting over or merging a reference layer. The tradeoff is that it only samples the reference, not your canvas, so you'll switch between the two methods as you work.

If sampling from the reference doesn't seem to work, try these checks:

• Make sure you're pressing on the reference image itself, not the canvas behind the panel.
• Hold slightly longer than you would on the canvas.
• Confirm the reference is an image and not a canvas-based reference.

Save Grabbed Colors to a Palette

Grabbing colors one at a time is fine for a handful of tones. For a full set of colors you want to keep, use the Palettes tab in the Colors panel. Procreate lets you create your own palettes and import existing ones, so you can collect the colors you grab from a reference frame, a film still, or a photograph in one place.

After creating the palette, set it as your active palette. The active palette shows at the bottom of the Color Disc, Classic, Harmony, and Value tabs, so your swatches stay one tap away while you paint.

Use Color History and Previous Color to Move Faster

Procreate keeps a Color History of the last ten colors you used. It appears in the Color Panel on the Disc, Classic, Harmony, and Value tabs, and you can clear it when you want a clean slate. The history is empty when you open a new artwork, and each new color pushes the oldest one out.

This pairs well with eyedropper work. If you sample a color, tweak it, and then realize the original was better, you don't need to resample. Open the history and tap the earlier color. When you drag the reticle on the color disc, a split circle shows the color you're hovering over beside your most recent color, which makes subtle comparisons easier.

On Procreate Pocket, the active color swatch has extra tricks: press and hold it to switch between your current and previous color, or drag it onto the canvas for ColorDrop, which flood-fills an area with your selected color until it hits a boundary like an outline.

Check and Record Exact Values

Once you've grabbed a color, you often need to know exactly what it is. Open the Colors panel and switch to the Value tab. It offers precision sliders along with numerical and hexadecimal values, which makes it the right place for exact color matching. Note the hex code if the color needs to land in another application.

A few practical checks:

• Compare against the original. Use the loupe's new-versus-previous display to see whether your sampled color differs from what you were painting with.
• Fine-tune on the Value tab. If the sample is close but not right, nudge it with the sliders instead of resampling.
• Save keepers to a palette. Anything you'll reuse should go into a palette, not live only in the history, since the history rolls over after ten colors.

Common Problems When Color Grabbing

The eyedropper doesn't trigger. Check Gesture Controls to confirm the Eyedropper is assigned to the method you're using. If you changed it to a QuickMenu slot and forgot, a touch-and-hold won't do anything.

You sample the wrong color. Check which layer is active and what's visible. Sampling can be thrown off by overlapping layers, transparency, or adjustments applied elsewhere in the stack.

The reference won't sample. Press and hold directly on the reference image and give it a moment, since that hold duration isn't adjustable.

The color shifts when you paint. If a brush has color dynamics, opacity, or blending behavior, the stroke may not match the swatch exactly. Test on a blank layer with a plain brush to confirm that the swatch itself is right.

History vanished. It only holds ten colors and starts empty on a new artwork. Save important colors to a palette.

Carrying Procreate Colors Into a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, animators, and VFX artists, Procreate is often where look development starts: a quick paint-over, a style frame sketch, a palette study. The color work only pays off when it carries cleanly into After Effects, Nuke, Blender, or Cinema 4D.

The simplest reliable handoff is by value. Read the hex code from the Value tab and enter it in your compositing or 3D application. Keep a small swatch sheet in your Procreate file, with each color labeled by role such as shadow, key, accent, or background, and export it alongside your frames. Whatever you do, check how color is managed on each side. A color-management mismatch between your Procreate file and your compositing project's working space is a common reason a color looks right on the iPad and different in the timeline. Decide on a working space early, and verify by sampling the same pixel in both places.

Quick Reference

Final Thoughts

Color grabbing in Procreate comes down to one gesture and a few settings. Learn the eyedropper trigger, know that reference images sample slightly differently from the canvas, and use palettes and the Value tab to lock colors down. From there, the main job is making sure those colors survive the trip into your motion pipeline, whether that's through hex values, a labeled swatch sheet, or style references that guide the next stage of production.