Computers-Hacking
See other Computers-Hacking Articles
Title: PDF Layers in Obama’s Birth Certificate
Source:
[None]
URL Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corne ... th-certificate-nathan-goulding
Published: Apr 28, 2011
Author: Nathan Goulding
Post Date: 2011-04-28 14:51:43 by Skip Intro
Keywords: None
Views: 50328
Comments: 56
We have received several e-mails today calling into question the validity of the PDF that the White House released, namely that there are embedded layers in the document. There are now several other people on the case. We looked into it and dismissed it.
The PDF is composed of multiple images. That’s correct. Using a photo editor or PDF viewer of your choice, you can extract this image data, view it, hide it, etc. But these layers, as they’re being called, aren’t layers in the traditional photo-editing sense of the word. They are, quite literally, pieces of image data that have been positioned in a PDF container. They appear as text but also contain glyphs, dots, lines, boxes, squiggles, and random garbage. They’re not combined or merged in any way. Quite simply, they look like they were created programmatically, not by a human.
What’s plausible is that somewhere along the way — from the scanning device to the PDF-creation software, both of which can perform OCR (optical character recognition) — these partial/pseudo-text images were created and saved. What’s not plausible is that the government spent all this time manufacturing Obama’s birth certificate only to commit the laughably rookie mistake of exporting the layers from Photoshop, or whatever photo editing software they are meant to have used. It’s likely that whoever scanned the birth certificate in Hawaii forgot to turn off the OCR setting on the scanner. Let’s leave it at that.
UPDATE: I’ve confirmed that scanning an image, converting it to a PDF, optimizing that PDF, and then opening it up in Illustrator, does in fact create layers similar to what is seen in the birth certificate PDF. You can try it yourself at home.
Poster Comment:
See, as I pointed out numerous times yesterday, layers are a natural part of a PDF document. You read it here first.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 50.
#4. To: Skip Intro (#0) (Edited)
PDF Layers in Obama’s Birth Certificate
This is complete horse shit designed to bamboozle people who don't know squat about computers.
The birth certificate was posted as a .jpg file. Jpeg is a raster graphics format comprised on nothing more than a rectangular grid of pixels (points of color). There isn't any other information in the file.
You cannot reconstruct Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator layes from a .jpg file.
#5. To: jwpegler (#4)
The birth certificate was posted as a .jpg file.
No it wasn't. I downloaded it myself. It was a PDF file. You can download it yourself today. It will still be a PDF file.
#7. To: Skip Intro (#5)
Ok, I found it. It's not a PDF document. The took some type of raster image (bitmap, jpeg, etc) and converted it to a PDF format.
There is no other information in the document.
#9. To: jwpegler (#7)
Ok, I found it. It's not a PDF document. The took some type of raster image (bitmap, jpeg, etc) and converted it to a PDF format.
Yes, and that makes what you're looking at a PDF document, layers and all.
Really. I made a grocery list yesterday in plain text and converted it to a PDF.
Guess what? It had layers.
#26. To: Skip Intro (#9)
High, I am Orly Taitz, and I would like to tell crazy producer who tight shot my finger instead of precious document of selecting service I have important job of making Michele Bachman look sane.
Now I go file suit, thank you.
#28. To: Ferret Mike (#26)
Whatever you do, Mike, don't educate yourself by watching. Remain in proud ignorance to defend the indefensible.
#32. To: Rudgear (#28)
I don't know why, but the document has obviously been altered. Zoom your PDF reader in on the top right where it shows "61 10641" and you would have to be blind not to see the last digit was pasted into the image. It has pixelation typical of a JPG image that the majority of the image doesn't have. There is at least one other occurrence of this in the document.
#34. To: Abcdefg (#32)
The question never asked is: why create a PDF file in the first place? Just do a HiRes scan from Hawaii to the White House web page.
The only reason to make it a PDF document is so it can be manipulated, as you noticed.
#50. To: Rudgear (#34)
The question never asked is: why create a PDF file in the first place? Just do a HiRes scan from Hawaii to the White House web page.
Functionality.
Generally there is no point in creating a file with more information than the output device can reproduce.
Replies to Comment # 50.
There are no replies to Comment # 50.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 50.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]