Inpaint is intended mainly for photo restoration but it also has incredible features to let you remove unwanted objects or people from a picture. It will do it by analyzing the context and generating filling textures from it.
This program’s interface looks unsophisticated. However, behind this rather simple interface, there are powerful processing algorithms that will allow you to get astonishing results with less effort. If it were not for the different options available from the toolbar, this program would look like an old version of Microsoft Paint. So, if you are familiar with simple picture editors, you will probably be able to use the basic functions without any help at all. However, if you read the online documentation or watch the accompanying tutorials, you will find lots of other capabilities hidden there.
The main part is the working area, where you will preview the photo being edited. There will also be a toolbar with such common buttons as Open, Save, Undo, Redo and Zoom. Surprisingly, the buttons intended for this application’s specific functions are just six: Marker Size, Magic Wand, Guide Lines and Multi View Inpaint.
There are two basic modes. Simple editing is performed by selecting the area occupied by the object (or person) you want to remove from the photograph. This works by basically imitating the object’s surroundings. A more complex (and more accurate) mode is called Multi View Inpaint, which uses several photos to fill in the removed space with data from a real image.
In general, Inpaint offers useful and effective photo restoration procedures. In this respect, it is a real alternative to much more expensive software.
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