How does the clone tool work?

[joefiesta]

All I found about using the clone tool is this (from the documentation at Help):

"Right click to define the source; left click and drag to define the target and start painting a copy of the source. Hold down the shift key, and scroll with the mouse-wheel to adjust the width of the clone brush." I also found Surendran Nambiath's manual (version 4.25) online, but it says basically the same as the above.

This is FAR from complete, and, for people like me, just doesn't tell me how to use it.

1. Right click to define the source. Must I make a selection first? That doesn't help it seems.

Help with using clone would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
Joe Petree

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

"Right click to define the source; left click and drag to define the target and start painting a copy of the source. Hold down the shift key, and scroll with the mouse-wheel to adjust the width of the clone brush."

You found more extensive help than I did.

On the plugin toolbar there's a blue question mark icon. Enable that to show "exhaustive context help." The tooltip for the Clone brush then shows this text:

The clone tool copies one part of the image to another area.
It can be used to remove dust and scratches from photos.
Right-click to select the source, then left-click where you want to start replacing.

"Hold down the shift key, and scroll with the mouse-wheel to adjust the width of the clone brush" is a useful bonus.

That's all you need to know. It is a basic tool without any feathering like you might find in a photo-editing application.

My web page for IrfanPaint help says all of the above:

Clone Tool
Hold down the control key and click to define the source; click and drag to define the target and start painting a copy of the source. Hold down the shift key, and scroll with the mouse-wheel to adjust the width of the clone brush.

There is no need to define any area to copy. Right-click defines the pixel at the centre of the clone brush source, while right-click defines the pixel of the centre of the target brush, however wide the brush is.

[jazzman]

Joe, the clone tool is part of the IrfanPaint plugin. You can open it via F12 or menu Edit --> Show Paint Dialog.

Just sayin' ;o)

[vinny22]

We can work on clone tool in following way:

Open the image to be edited in IrfanView

1. Open the "Paint tool" from Edit Menu [i,e, Show paint dialog F2]
2. Tool bar appears on RHS of screen
3. Click on "Clone tool" icon
4. First increase "Width (px)" [field present in bottom of toolbar] -- starting from 20px
5. Right click in target where u want to copy the content/shade/color
6. Left click on destination and start dragging mouse in destination point/location. This adds target content/shade/color