Clone Stamp Aligned Option in Adobe Photoshop

The Aligned option in Adobe Photoshop's Clone Stamp tool determines how the spatial relationship between the sampling source and the target cursor behaves when making non-contiguous brush strokes. By toggling this setting on or off in the Options bar, you control whether Photoshop maintains a fixed coordinate offset between the source point and your brush or resets the sampling origin back to the original reference point every time you release the mouse button or lift your stylus.

How the Aligned Option Works

When you define a source point using Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (macOS), Photoshop establishes a coordinate relationship between that source location and where you place your initial clone stroke. The Aligned checkbox alters this behavior across interrupted, non-contiguous strokes in two distinct ways:

1. Aligned Checked (Enabled)

When Aligned is enabled, Photoshop locks the relative distance and angle between the sample source and the brush cursor.

• Behavior across strokes: If you paint an area, release the mouse button, and start a new stroke elsewhere on the canvas, the source point does not reset. Instead, it tracks along with your cursor, maintaining the exact same spatial offset established during your first stroke.
• Result: You can stop painting, navigate to a different part of the document, and resume painting without duplicating the initial area. Photoshop continues sampling the surrounding areas as if you had never lifted your brush, making it ideal for seamlessly reconstructing large textures, removing long objects, or cloning broad surfaces across gaps.

2. Aligned Unchecked (Disabled)

When Aligned is disabled, the fixed distance offset is discarded each time a stroke ends.

• Behavior across strokes: Every time you release the mouse button and begin a new, non-contiguous stroke, the source point automatically snaps back to the exact pixel location where you initially Alt-clicked or Option-clicked.
• Result: Each individual stroke begins sampling from the original starting point again. This mode is best suited for duplicating a specific element—such as a single star, a pattern element, or an isolated object—multiple times across different areas of an image without needing to re-sample the source.

Summary of Non-Contiguous Stroke Tracking

Across non-contiguous strokes, the Aligned option functions as a toggle between continuous spatial mapping and fixed-point resetting. Keeping Aligned checked preserves the physical offset relative to the cursor's current position, whereas leaving Aligned unchecked guarantees that the sampling coordinate strictly resets to the initial anchor point at the start of every new stroke.