Trouble Sampling Colors with Eyedropper Tool: InDesign CS5

Question

Hey everyone,
My name is Quin, and I've used InDesign CS5 for the past few years and am working on a magazine layout for the first time. I'm suddenly having a really difficult time getting the eye-dropper tool to extract color samples from images i've placed in my layout. These are either jpeg or PDF images. If I recall correctly, in my past use of the program, i could simply click the eyedropper tool in an image and get my color sample – but suddenly, i'm having trouble getting it to sample color/make a color swatch.
I tried double clicking the tool and excluding everything i wouldn't want it to sample. Tried locking/unlocking layers, tried making sure the image frame itself is selected, tried holding down option, tried trashing the preferences (using a 2012 MacBook Air with the latest version of OS X Mountain Lion)… most of the time when i attempt to sample a color, nothing shows up in the fill box, except the classic diaognal red line over white.
The exception is when i use the eyedropper to sample non-image base things i've already filled, like a retangle, it picks up the color fine. So it's likely image specific. Is there something really obvious that i'm missing? It's frustrating because i simply want to sample colors to get a rough idea for text colors and headlines that can match images, and there doesn't seem to be a quick way to do this…
Thanks so much for the help!
-Quin

Answer 1

Quin, I just had a eureka moment! I was having the exact same problem,  unable to sample color from images with the eyedropper tool, and when I sampled text to apply formatting, it strangely applied a black rule around the new text. The problem was intermittent, with the tool both working  and not working within the same document. I finally realized the tool was  misbehaving when sampling an item on the document, but worked fine when sampling images or text on the pasteboard.
So, the document I'm working on is an ad with a 1pt rule around the border. I have the border on it's own layer at the top level, and locked, so I can select items on the ad without the border getting in the way. What I found is, even though it's locked, the eyedropper tool is sampling the border from that layer!
I tried turning off  stroke  settings in the eyedropper options just gave my text a fill of 'none.' Turning off both stroke and fill settings had no effect on the new text at all. I tried unlocking the layer and just locking the border on it's own, but it still picked up the formatting from the border.
The only thing that worked is to hide the layer! Turn off the layer 'eyeball' and see if that works for you.