All glossary terms
AI & Generation

What is Inpainting?

An AI technique that fills in or modifies a masked region of an image while preserving the unmasked area. The standard method for AI-healing seamless tile boundaries.

How does inpainting fill a masked area?

Inpainting takes three inputs: an image, a binary mask defining which pixels to edit, and (optionally) a text prompt describing the desired output. The diffusion model runs its denoising process only on the masked region while using the unmasked pixels as fixed context. The output is the original image with the masked region replaced by AI-generated content that visually continues the surrounding patterns. For seamless tile creation, inpainting heals the edges where a tile meets its own repeat, which turns any starting image into a seamless tile. Inpainting quality scales with mask precision: a tight mask (covering only the seam strip) preserves more of the original art but limits the model's ability to redistribute motifs across the seam; a wider mask (covering 20% of the tile) gives the model more freedom but may reinvent details the designer wanted preserved. The width of the healed band is adjustable.

What is inpainting used for in textile design?

A user has a hand-painted floral with motifs running off the edges. The seam between left and right edges does not match. Texloom heals the seam where the left and right edges meet, and the tile then repeats with no visible join.

Related terms

Diffusion model
A class of generative AI models that produce images by iteratively denoising random Gaussian noise into coherent imagery. The dominant architecture for AI image generation in 2026, including textile pattern AI.
Outpainting
An AI technique that extends an image beyond its original borders by generating new content that visually continues the existing image. The complement of inpainting.
Seamless tile
A rectangular image whose left edge continues into its right edge and whose top edge continues into its bottom edge, allowing it to repeat across a surface without visible seams.
CFG scale
Classifier-free guidance scale — a parameter controlling how strictly a diffusion model follows the text prompt. Higher values produce more literal interpretations; lower values allow more creative variation.
Mask
A grayscale image that defines which pixels of a primary image should be edited (white) vs. preserved (black) during inpainting or compositing operations.

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