How to Switch the Patch Tool’s Source and Destination Pixels

Every time you use Photoshop’s Patch tool, you use source and destination pixels to patch a problem in the image.

By default, Photoshop sets the Patch tool to use the content in the duplicate selection as the source pixels and the content in the original selection as the destination pixels. You can reverse this setting by clicking on the radio button next to Destination in the Patch toolbar.

Once you change this setting, Photoshop will use the content in the original selection to patch the problematic area—you’ll simply have to click and drag your original selection over the area that needs repair. Rather than see an on-the-fly preview of what your fix will look like (as you do when using the default Source setting), you’ll just see the pixels from your original selection as you move the selection around the image.

Switching between Source and Destination is largely a matter of preference. Some Photoshop users just find it more logical to select a clean portion of an image first and then apply that portion’s pixels to a problematic part of the image, rather than the reverse. The basic functionality of the Patch tool remains the same regardless of whether you’ve checked Source or Destination in the Patch toolbar.