Systems and methods provide object-based image inpainting. The object-based inpainting can recover part of a missing object or can synthesize visual objects that are entirely missing. In one implementation, an exemplary system generates a target visual object to be inpainted into an image, by geometrically matching key features with a model visual object that can be selected from the same or another image. Borders of the target object are refined through pixel-based contour deformation and textures for the target object are obtained either by pixel interpolation or by patch-based modeling of pre-existing texture in the image. Graph-cut segmentation rectifies image overlap as the target object is embedded in the image. Poisson editing filters visual seams, and edge filling completes visual gaps around the border of the target object.