7 Patch
Used for merging
copied image selections
Found at #4 in the Toolbar diagram at left
Please note that the healing brush
has its own page.
The patch tool and healing brush are grouped together in the toolbar.
If the patch tool is not visible, click on the icon of the healing brush
in the toolbar and choose the patch tool from the pop-up menu.
Use this tool like a combination of the lasso tool and the clone stamp.
You drag a selection boundary with the tool in the same way that you make
a selection with the lasso tool. When you are dragging your selection,
the tool’s cursor will look like a stitched patch, or, at the screen resolution
that I use, like a little fuzz-ball.
Once you have a selection around the spot that you want to use for a
patch, (or to be patched if you’re using Destination) you then
place the cursor within the selection outline and drag to another part
of your picture. If you have Source selected on the tool’s options bar,
the original selection area will be covered by whatever spot the selection
boundary is over when you stop dragging (release the mouse button). The
selection boundary will pop back to where you originally drew it. You
can use the same patch to cover multiple areas. Just keep dragging it
out and dropping it on new spots. When you have Source chosen on the options
bar and place your cursor within the selection to drag, the cursor’s appearance
may help you remember what the option does (if you can see something that
small).
If you have Destination chosen on the options bar, the original selection
area will be used as the patch (copied) material, and the spot where you
stop your drag will be covered by that patch. The selection boundary will
remain where you end your drag, but the copied material (the patch) remains
in the selection. This allows you to use the same patch to cover multiple
spots. Destination is the reverse of Source. The appearance of the cursor
when placed within a Destination selection outline may help you remember
its action.
At any time before or after you’ve used a selection boundary as a patch, you can alter the selection using any of the usual selection commands. These include Shift-dragging to add to the selection, Alt-dragging to subtract from the selection boundary, using the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge the outline to a new location, using any of the other selection tools to drag the selection boundary to a new location, or using any of the Select menu items to transform, modify or feather the selection boundary.
If your patch contains a large block of solid color or an obviously identifiable object, it’s not going to work well as a patch. You do need to make some effort to find source/destination material that is a reasonable match in texture and content. The tool will take care of brightness and coloring.
The illustration below is the patch tool’s options bar. Left-click on the tool’s icon to find any tool presets that have been made for this tool. Use the Source or Destination radio buttons as described above.
If you want to use a pattern as your patch, first, click on the pattern thumbnail to get the patterns pop-up palette. Choose the pattern that you want to use. Then click the Use Pattern button. If you have Source selected on the options bar, that pattern will be applied directly to the selected area with the usual patch merging of brightness and coloring. If, after that, you drag your patch outline out to another spot, the pattern will be covered (removed) by the new patch material.
If, on the other hand, you have Destination selected when you click the Use Pattern button, the pattern covers the current spot as well as any areas over which you drag the patch. Normally, when Destination is selected on the options bar, the original selection area is used only as copy material when you drag the selection to a new spot (the original selection spot is not altered). The pattern remains as the patch contents until you deselect, or switch to Source, drag to a new spot, and then switch back to Destination.
If you have doodled with a tool’s options and want to get back to the default settings, right-click that tool’s icon at the far left end of its options bar (in Photoshop 6, left-click). Choose either Reset Tool to reset only the current tool, or Reset All Tools to restore default settings to every tool.
Please note that all descriptions, and illustrations featured refer to files which are in Photoshop’s .psd format, and which are in RGB color mode. Other file formats, and color modes may generate different options. Some Photoshop features are not available for images not in .psd format, or RGB color mode. To find what color mode your image is in, choose Image > Mode.
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