Intent to Prototype: EyeDropper API

[Ionel Popescu]

Contact emails

iopo...@microsoft.com, pc...@microsoft.com, meri...@microsoft.com, clma...@microsoft.com

Explainer

https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/EyeDropper/explainer.md

Specification

None

Summary

The EyeDropper API enables developers to use a browser-supplied eyedropper in the construction of custom color pickers.

Blink component

Blink>Forms>Color

Motivation

Creative applications built for the web could benefit from an ability to sample a color from pixels on the screen. Many "native" applications, e.g. PowerPoint, have this ability but are unable to carry it over their web equivalents.   Even though some browsers have eyedropper capability built into <input type=color> elements, web applications are limited in their ability to integrate this into their custom color picker UX since the eyedropper is generally accessible only through the non-customizable popup UI of the <input type=color> control.

Initial public proposal

None

TAG review

https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/587

TAG review status

Pending

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

Interoperability risks:

The new API can be feature-detected by checking for the existence of the EyeDropper interface on the window object. On browsers without support, web apps can invoke the full color picker programmatically.

Chrome: Public support (https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/issues/409)

Edge: Public support

Gecko: No signal

WebKit: No signal

Web developers: Positive

Debuggability

No special support is needed.

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?

Not yet, but WPT tests will be added during development.

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and Android WebView)?

Initially we are planning to support this only on desktop operating systems and will consider bringing it to mobile if there is demand.

Tracking bug

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=897309

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/6304275594477568

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.