How to Use the Clone Tool in GIMP Freeware

Adobe Photoshop is one of the world’s most popular software programs, but it is expensive and not affordable for the casual digital photographer. GIMP is a powerful image editing program available for free at http://www.gimp.org/. It has many of the same features as Photoshop and is easy to use. In this article we will discuss how to us the clone tool. This feature of GIMP is very similar to the Photoshop Feature.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• GIMP 2.0 or later running on a PC
• A copy of an image for experimentation

1. 
    
   Tools palette

   Open your saved file in GIMP. From the toolbar, select the clone tool from the tools palette. As in Photoshop, the clone tool looks like a rubber stamp. Notice the properties for the tool below the word clone.

2. 
    
   Select the area to clone from

   Notice the dotted line selection area. This is the tool you will use to select the area to clone from. To select the area, move the mouse to where you want to clone from and move it over that area while holding the CONTROL key and clicking the right mouse button.

3. 
    
   Select the clone mode

   Set the clone mode to NORMAL. This will allow you to paint the new area with the clone selection that you made. You can also choose to replace color or clone behind the image area you select. In this case, we will replace the man with a clone of the woman.
   We selected a large clone brush and adjusted the size using the SCALE slider which makes the selected brush smaller or larger.

4. 
    
   Cloning

   Using small circular motions, we begin to paint the area we selected over the area we are painting. Notice the image of the woman begin to appear over the man. This is because we chose normal mode.

5. 
    
   Final Image

   In the final image we have replaced the man with the woman. At first glance it looks OK, but look a little closer. Notice the difference in the background and the missing part of the woman. This is not a procedure that can be done casually to create a great image. Experiment with color replacement, behind and dissolve modes to get the effect you want

Tips & Warnings

• When downloading GIMP, make sure you download the help system. It is a separate download and also free.
• The clone tool is best used with objects against solid backgrounds. You can also use the blend function to blend the cloned image into the background.
• Always work with copies of your images to preserve your image archive.

Resources

• GIMP Image Editor

[Hinda]

on 12/19/2007 This looks hard to do well. I will experiment with it when I find a suitable picture