About the Spot Healing Brush Tool
The spot healing brush removes small flaws from a photo: dust on a scan, a pimple, a stray hair, a mark on a wall or a thin cable across the sky. Paint over the flaw, release, and the painted area is filled in from the colours around it, so the spot disappears without leaving a hole. Choose the brush size, undo any stroke, start over and save the result as a full-size PNG. This works best on small flaws against smooth or evenly textured backgrounds; it cannot invent detail for large objects. Your picture is edited in your browser and never uploaded.
Updated October 2026
How to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool
- 1Select an image or drop one on the page.
- 2Set the brush size a little larger than the flaw.
- 3Paint over the spot or wire. The area shows in pink while you paint.
- 4Lift your finger or mouse button and the area is healed.
- 5Undo if you do not like it, then press Download PNG.
When to use spot healing
Small, isolated flaws are the ideal case: the dust specks that a scanner leaves on a negative, a blemish on skin, a bird dropping on a car, a power line crossing a clear sky. In each case the surroundings are smooth enough that a blend of the nearby colours looks like the real thing.
How to paint
Use a brush slightly larger than the flaw and paint over it in one go. For long thin things such as wires, paint along them in one stroke. The area you paint shows in pink so you can see exactly what will change. Lift your finger and the healing happens at once.
- Dust and spots: tap once with a brush a bit larger than the spot
- Wires and scratches: one stroke along the line
- Blemishes: tap with a small brush, repeat if a trace remains
Healing versus cloning
Healing smooths; cloning copies. On a clear sky or a plain wall, healing is faster and gives a clean result. On grass, brick or hair, where texture matters, cloning looks more natural. You can use both on the same picture by downloading between steps.
A quick example
Imagine a photo of a blue sky crossed by a thin black cable. Choose a brush about three times as wide as the cable and paint along it from one side of the picture to the other. When you lift the pointer, the cable is replaced by sky blue that blends with the sky on both sides.
Phone and computer
On a phone, paint with one finger; the page does not scroll while you touch the picture. On a computer, a ring shows the brush size. Pictures up to about 16 million pixels are supported and are saved at full size as PNG.
Good to know
The fill takes the colours from the edge of what you painted, so avoid painting over the edge of another object, or its colour will bleed in. Painting more than about a tenth of the picture in one stroke may be slow. Your original file is never changed, and Start over restores it. If eyes look red in a flash photo, fix them with Red Eye Remover, and use the Blur Tool to soften a rough patch.
Features
- Heals dust, spots, blemishes and thin wires
- Brush size slider
- Undo and Start over
- Pink preview while you paint
- Touch, mouse and pen supported
- Private: runs in your browser
Frequently asked questions
How does spot healing work?
The painted area is filled in from the colours around its edge, flowing inward like a smooth blend. That makes small flaws vanish on plain or softly textured backgrounds.
What can it remove?
Small things: dust marks on scans, pimples, wires, scratches, stray hairs, tiny objects on a plain wall or sky. It is not meant for removing people or large objects.
Why does a large area look smudgy?
The fill has no texture of its own. Over a big area it becomes a smooth blur. For larger flaws, use several small strokes, or the Clone Tool, which copies real texture.
What is the difference from the Clone Tool?
Clone copies real pixels from elsewhere, which keeps texture. Spot healing blends colours from the edge, which needs no source point but is smoother.
Should I paint carefully along the edge?
Paint a little beyond the flaw so that no trace of it remains at the edge, but not so much that you cover details you want to keep.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. Everything happens in your browser.