Why the first rectangle starts there
Translucent text changes every pixel beneath it rather than replacing those pixels outright. The fill therefore rebuilds an estimate of the ground; it cannot mathematically subtract the mark and recover an untouched original.
Work in short boxes when a long mark crosses several different surfaces. One huge fill has to reconcile sky, clothing and architecture at once and usually softens all three.
Removing a mark does not change copyright, licence or attribution duties. This workflow is for your own watermark, a licensed asset whose provider allows removal, or a file you have explicit permission to modify.
The boundary of the fill
- No invisible original survives underneath burned-in text.The fill estimates a plausible surface from nearby pixels; it does not reveal a hidden layer.
- Busy structure is not a flat-ground job.When letters cross a face, hand, product edge or unique texture, a small automatic fill may redraw the wrong thing convincingly.
Questions before applying the fill
- What decides whether the filled area looks natural?
- The ground around the box. Flat sky, painted walls and soft out-of-focus areas provide consistent evidence. Faces, hands, lettering, grids and unique objects require structure the surrounding pixels may not contain.
- Should the box touch the letters?
- Give every glyph a small margin so antialiasing, shadow and outline are included. A box clipped to the visible dark core leaves a pale or coloured trace around the fill.
- Can I undo a bad pass?
- Yes. Box geometry and fill operations are kept as reversible steps, and holding the compare control shows the frame as it arrived.