Clone tool

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The Clone tool, as it is known in Adobe Photoshop and GIMP, is used in digital image editing to replace information for one part of a picture with information from another part. In other image editing software, its equivalent is sometimes called a Rubber Stamp tool or a Clone brush.

A typical use for the tool is in photoshopping: After an object is removed, a hole is left in the background. The Clone tool can fill in this hole convincingly with a copy of the existing background.

The applications of the cloning tool are almost unlimited. The most common usage, in professional editing, is to remove blemishes and uneven skin tones. With a click of a button you can remove a pimple, mole, or a scar. It is also used to remove other unwanted elements, such as telephone wires, an unwanted bird in the sky, and a variety of other things. In some cases, the undesired object is mixed with the remained of the image, and a simple circular brush, even with feathering, would not work. For these cases, some programs allow that object to be selected by color/outline so other areas are not affected. Other programs allow edge/color sensitive brushes to deal with such objects.