Clone tool

This padlock is imprinted with the manufacturer’s logo.

The clone tool can be used to remove the logo.

The clone tool, as it is known in Adobe Photoshop, GIMP and Corel PhotoPaint, 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.

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