Resynthesizer GIMP Plugin – Selectively Remove Objects from Pictures

Resynthesizer is a GIMP plugin for texture synthesis. You can use it to seamlessly remove objects from images, create more of a texture, and create themed images. This tutorial explains how you can install and use the GIMP resynthesizer plugin to selectively remove objects from your images.

Installing Resynthesizer Plugin

In Ubuntu / Debian specific Linux distributions, you can install GIMP Resynthesizer plugin using apt-get command as follows :

$ sudo apt-get install gimp-resynthesizer

In non-Debian Linux distributions, you can use their respective package management tool to install the gimp-resynthesizer package.

Once you have installed the plug-in, you can access it in GIMP via “Filters > Enhance” GIMP menu.

In fact, you will find three menu options namely “Smart Enlarge“, “Smart Remove Selection“, and “Smart Sharpen” in the “Enhance” menu.

Removing an Object from an Image

As an example, the following is an image which contains a PCLinuxOS logo. And I wish to remove the logo from the image.

Here is how it is done in 2 steps.

Step 1

Use the “Free Select” tool (Keyboard shortcut ‘F‘) to select the object (in this case the PCLinuxOS logo) you wish to remove from the image.

Step 2

Click on GIMP menu Filters > Enhance > Smart Remove Selection.

A dialog opens in which you can enter the radius to take texture from (default is 100).

Tip: If the object you wish to remove is in a conjested space or if there is too much diversity in texture around the object then it is better to reduce the radius value.

Accept the default value, and click “OK”.

Now the GIMP resynthesizer plugin will start doing its magic and in no time, the object you had selected will have been seamlessly removed.

Here is another example where I removed a glass from the picture using GIMP resynthesizer plugin.

Before

After

Note: I had to do some re-touching in the above picture to get the desired result because the variation in the texture around the glass was more complex.

Now you know how you can remove objects from pictures using GIMP resynthesizer plugin.