Quick hits! There is a new web API called EyeDropper:
if ('EyeDropper' in window) {
const eyeDropper = new EyeDropper();
try {
// This has gotta be triggered by a user interaction,
// so consider this pseudo-code.
const result = await eyeDropper.open();
const colorHexValue = result.sRGBHex;
} catch (err) {
// The user escaped the eyedropper mode.
}
}- Here’s a very good blog post intro on it.
- It’s only in Chrome’n’friends right now.
- I wish I knew better how to watchdog APIs like this. Looks like it originally came from Edge, then became a community group thing, which is where the draft spec is, which went through a public review before shipping was announced (in Chrome), and now it’s live. Seems like a good process, but also that Chrome can really steamroll right through this process essentially all by themselves. Other browsers really don’t even have to say a word and it still ships. Mixed feelings, but mostly positive, especially because this is such a little bonus feature and not something that I’d consider ultra critical to any web app.
- You can pick colors from anywhere on your entire screen, which is great. It’ll improve tools like Figma, which has a color picker, but is currently limited to picking off the canvas.
- It’s already being used in production apps, like Slides.com and Polypane, improving UX. (via Bramus)
- There is a Chrome Extention. (again, via Bramus)
- But hey maybe a bookmarklet is just as easy.
- When you do
<input type="color">, the UI popup thingy for that (platform provided) color picker is in it too (at least on macOS), so there is always that. Makes me think that anywhere you use<input type="color">it would make sense to also offer a progressively-enhanced button right next to it to jump right to the color picker. Hash tag free web component idea.
