Clone tool

In other image editing software, its equivalent is sometimes called a rubber stamp tool or a clone brush.

[1] A typical use for the tool is in object removal – more colloquially, "airbrushing" or "photoshopping" out an unwanted part of the image.

The Clone tool can fill in this hole convincingly with a copy of the existing background from elsewhere in the image.

Of these, patch-based texture synthesis or "image quilting" is essentially an automated application of the clone tool, choosing the optimal source area so as to patch over with a minimal seam.

In some cases, the undesired object is mixed with the remainder of the image, and a simple circular brush, even with feathering, would not work.