Report: Obama Birth Certificate Fake - Adobe Expert Mara Zebest's Analysis - 29 Jun 2011

8/6/2019 Report: Obama Birth Certificate Fake - Adobe Expert Mara Zebest's Analysis - 29 Jun 2011

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REPORTBARACK OBAMA: LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICAT

by Mara Zebe


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REPORT BARACK OBAMA: LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICAT

Introduction BasicsMerely viewing the Long Form birth certicate in Acrobat read

without any special sotwareis enough to reveal a myriad o

image tampering evidence. What do you look or?

Figure 1 is an example o a scanned image viewed in Photosho

Notice that the Layers palette displays one layer which deaults

to the name Background. A one layered le is also reerred to asattened image (more on layers later).

Scanned images will have a consistent noise and/or grain. Any

inconsistencies in noise or grain would be a strong telltale sign

tampering. Obamas long orm certicate document shows a c

inconsistency o noise in various locations. Lets examine a scan

image to get an understanding o what is meant by the term

noisewhich is more easily seen at high zoom levels. Figure 1

shows the sample zoom areas o ocusto get a closer look.

Noise and Antialiasing

So what is noise? At the normal zoom level (100%) shown in

Figure 1, there seems to be the normal transitions o color toneand shadows. For example, Sample area one appears to have

solid black area o hair near the ace. Conversely, Sample area

(also shown in Figure 1) appears to have a solid white or o-wh

area.

However, when you zoom in closer as seen in Figure 2 (or area

one) and peek ahead to Figure 3 (or area two), you can easily

view consistent noise which is apparent in the slight variations

color rom neighboring pixels. This is the natural noise level or

this image, and it is consistentthroughout the image. I necess

zoom in or a closer look at Figure 2, and you can clearly see the

consistent noise in the black tones as well.

Also notice the transition o pixel colors that occur when colors

contrast bump up next to each othersuch as the edge o the

against the dark hair color. This is reerred to as antialiasing wh

oers a smooth line o transition and gives the appearance o a

smooth line (to the eye) when viewed at the normal zoom leve

100% (in Figure 1). Without antialiasing, the edges appear jagg

or bitmapped.

Noise v No Noise

Beore applying this concept to Obamas PDF certicate le,

I would like to make another point using the same example

image. Figure 3 shows a pixel that is sampled to match one o

the o-white colors within the image: Using a paint brush tool

Photoshop), a streak o the sample color was drawn across theimage area.

Notice that a component added digitally to an

image does not contain noise. All neighboring pi

or the sample paint stroke in Figure 3 is solid in

color with no variationnot even the slightesto

variations.

In order to avoid detection when editin

an image, an experienced proessional

attempt to mimic the noise to match th

document. There are many methods, b

the most common method would be to add No

to the painted area via the Filter menu providedPhotoshop (shown in the menu gure to the letigure 3:Solid digital paint stroke added to image

Sample pixel color

Paint stroke with sample color

igure 2: Sample area zoom and noise becomes apparent

igure 1: Photo Image at 100% Zoom Level

Layers panel reveals

one layer

Sample area one

Sample area two


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REPORT BARACK OBAMA: LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE Page 3 of 12

Scanner Chromatic Aberration

The previous sections discussed noise and antialiasing in reere

to a scanned photo, but what about scanned text? Figure 4 sho

a sample section o scanned text. The Figure 4 insert shows th

sample text at normal zoom levelThe Anniversary Seriesloo

like ordinary black text. The majority o Figure 4 zooms into a

couple o text characters or a closer look at 1400% zoom level

Clearly a similar consistency in noise and antialiasing can be seat the higher zoom level. Additionally, notice a pattern in the

antialiasing transitional colors: The bottom or let edges o the

(as it transitions into the white background) are red-ish color va

in this example, similarly there are consistently blue-ish color

values around the top and right edges o transitions. This is typ

quite normal and is reerred to as chromatic aberrationcaus

when dierent wavelengths o light are reracted dierently as

goes through a lens or prism during the scanning process.

Applying Foundational BasicsNow lets examine some sample areas o Obamas Long Form

Certicate in Acrobat. Again, no need or special image editing

sotware at this point, just an understanding o what to look oLets start by mentioning that there is no evidence o chromati

aberration anywhere in the documentthis is not normal and

neither is the white halo surrounding the textboth points

indicates image tampering (more on the halo later).

Figure 5 clearly displays numerous inconsistencies onoise

and aliasingalso indicators o image tampering. A normal

documentscanned and saved as a PDFwould not display t

inconsistencies unless digitally alteredand compiled.

It should be noted, that these inconsistencies alone reute the

argument oating around that the layers can be explained by

using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) sotware. OCR sotw

would not generate an inconsistency in noise and aliasing. Notmention, the ethical implications o using OCR sotwarewhic

is to allow or the capability to edit textin a scanned documen

So why would you choose to use OCR sotware when scanning

ofcial document that is notintended to be edited or altered?

Figure 6 oers more inconsistency examples as ollows:

Bitmap text versus antialiasing textnotice the bitmap

X checkbox in question dcompared to the antialiased X

checkbox in question emajor inconsistency.

Additionally, the checkboxes are slightly dierent widths a

positioned dierently (pixels o checkbox on the bottom-ri

overlap line pixels below). Its almost as i the boxes were

copied and pasted and manually positioned.

Some letter characters are identical (pixel or pixel), almost

they were copied and pasted (and then moved into positio

Example, the lowercase i in the word Inside is identicalto

rst i injudicial. There are many similar identical instances

there are dissimilar typesetting examples o dierent onts

both suggesting compilation o a document digitally.

Irregular typesetting spacing which is not consistent with

proportional spacing used by computers or monospacing

used by typewriters in 1961but is consistent with copy a

pasting and moving letters around. Example: The word Ye

which has too much space between Y and e and not eno

space between e and s.

igure 5: PDF LFCB viewed in Acrobat at 1200% zoom level

Noise inconsistency inbackground pattern

Noise inconsistency in line

Noise inconsistency in text as

well as inconsistency in aliasing

igure 4: Scanned text and chromatic aberration

igure 6: Evidence o ont typesetting inconsistencies

Inconsistent checkbox sizes,aliasing and proximity to the line

Font inconsistenciesseri at

bottom o one d and not other

Another shit rom solidbitmap to antialiasing

Identical letters that suggestduplication such as with letter i


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igure 7: Inconsistencies within signatures

Noise & aliasing dierences or

comma& Kv surrounding text

Solid pixel parenthesis v

noise pixel parenthesis?

igure 8: Inconsistencies in pixel colors and spelling errors?

Spelling error on stamp? Really?

So all ocial Hawaiian birth

certicate documents should have

the same spelling errorright?

Dierence in text color

compared to last digit

Alvins signature suddenly

develops a smiley ace?

igure 9: http://actcheck.org/2008/08/born-in-the-usa/

Figure 7 once again demonstrates a trend o mixed solid

bitmapped character elements combined with antialiased

elements. It also seems apparent that typed text characters we

altered whenever signatures overlapped or bumped against ty

text characters. Additionally, signatures shows signs o being

pieced together rom multiple source documents.

Many o the adjustments are on separate layersagain, more

on this laterbut currently the ocus is on what can be seen in

Acrobat.

Dierences in Text Color Values

Figure 8 shows two similar dates in which portions o the date

were rom dierent edited sources. Visually, this can be seen in

the dierences o text color. Look closely and you can clearly se

dark black color or some digits (especially the last digit 1 in bo

instances), while other digits are a light gray.

It is only speculation, but my guess is that the creator o this

document is inexperienced when it comes to a multitude o

important concepts. The user might have known enough to be

dangerous, but not enough to know how to cover his/her track

In the printing world, you quickly learn that the object mayappear as solid black on the monitor screen but not all blacks a

created equal. Ater working in a printing department, and ripp

les to a proessional printer, you quickly learn to check or the

quality o the black values to ensure consistency in black tones

addition, Adobe has a setting that can prevent objects colored

pure black rom being displayed as Pure Blackor Rich Black. N

understanding this printing and typesetting concept is a comm

mistake made by beginners. And printing to a PDF is similar to

ripping to a proessional printer. So guess what? An object that

colored black on the monitor may not appear black when print

to a PDF. More evidence the document was digitally compiled?

On page 4 (the next page), I oer two web page captures o artlinks provided in Figure10 and Figure 11 (along with their

URLs). Figure 10 is rom Adobes web help le and discusses the

Mac settings or the pure black issue. Figure 11 oers an easy t

understand explanation o the signicance opure blackand ri

blackwhen printing.

Applying Common Sense

Not everything on Obamas certicate document needs a

proessional analysisyou just need common sense. For exam

all o us are oten told that the rst telltale sign o a raudulent

document or email scam is to look or misspellings. Wouldnt

that obvious concept apply to the ofcial stamp that displays

TXE (shown in Figure 8) rather than THE (shown in Figure 9)especially based on an assumption that such a stamp was

supposedly used on multiple ofcial documents?

Interestingly, Figure 9 shows an image o the same stamp

displayed at Factcheck.org in reerence to the short orm certi

rom 2008. The spelling error is absent along with a smiley ace

in the Alvin signature. It should be noted, that i a low resolutio

image (such as the one shown in Figure 9) was used as an adde

component or the long orm document, the enhancing proce

could have been a possible cause or explanation or the nal

anomaly aws. In act, I believe that the enhancement process

o low resolution text would explain the bitmapped quality o

the text, the poor readability characteristics, as well as a possibexplanation or the white halo eect surrounding the text.

No spelling error

Alvins signature

without smiley ace?


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igure 10: http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/13.0/help.html?content=WS7E8089AA-F584-46b0-8E67-DAA2ED79BE4B.ht

igure 11: http://www.printernational.org/rich-black-plain-black.php

normation on Pure Black v Rich Black
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/13.0/help.html?content=WS7E8089AA-F584-46b0-8E67-DAA2ED79BE4B.htmlhttp://www.printernational.org/rich-black-plain-black.phphttp://www.printernational.org/rich-black-plain-black.phphttp://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Illustrator/13.0/help.html?content=WS7E8089AA-F584-46b0-8E67-DAA2ED79BE4B.html


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More Questions

A ew more items to consider are shown in the overall view o t

document in Figure 12 as ollows:

Why is there an odd excessive typesetting space between t

number 4 and comma in the birth date?

Arican is not a race. Would American be a race? It may no

be politically correct, but in 1961, the option or race would

have been Negronot Arican which is another odd artiaout o place with the context o the historical time and plac

an anachronism.

Speaking o anachronismsin 1961, when typewriters we

used, the typist would move to the next line, and items sta

in a standard let margin (unless the typist purposely tabbe

over to a dierent location on the document). Thus most o

let margin text would consistently line up at the same poi

Figure 13 is explained below, and can be used to compare

margin line text in the Nordyke certicate with Obamas in

Figure 12. Nothing is properly aligned in Obamas docume

Figure 12 v Figure 13: I Obama was born the day beore th

birth date shown in Figure 13, then why would his certicanumber be greater? Wouldnt a smaller certicate number

be consistent with the earlier birth date and the earlier Dat

Accepted(led date)?

Where is the State seal? Who has an ofcial birth certicate

document that is missing a seal?

Why is there a background pattern? The Obama administra

claims the pattern was added or security purposesbut is

that admitting to altering the document? Is the administra

trying to create a rame o hiding the edits in plain site by

saying Yes, we edited the document to add security paper.

And why would this even be necessary?

Why would the date at the bottom o the document displa

dierent type onts? The ont used or the year is clearly a

dierent ont than the one used or the day. Under what

circumstances would you change onts while typing a date

Even i a stamp was used to stamp a date, wouldnt the stam

be made with the same consistent ont?

The Nordyke Twins Birth Certifcates

For those that are not amiliar with the storyashback during

2008 election cycle, when questions were raised about Obama

birth certicate. I believe it was the mother o the Nordyke twin

who released an image o the birth certicates in an attempt to

show an example o what a real 1961 Hawaiian birth certicateshould look like. Fast orward, to 2011 when Obama releases a

orm and the Nordyke image becomes even more signicant in

discussion.

When viewing Obamas document or the rst time, one o the

items that struck me as odd (especially i still applying common

sense) was the curvature on the let edge o the document. To

make matters worse, I could see evidence that the poor quality

seems to be digitally manipulated to mimic the curvature. For

the Nordyke image explains the inspiration or the curvature e

(and trust me, it is just thatan eecteven down to the shad

Furthermore, I believe the Nordyke image played a signicant

in compiling Obamas document and used as the ultimate temor the nal product.

Figure 13: Nordyke certicate a possible template source?

Let margin consistent with typewriter

The ocal sealcan be seen

Date Accepted and led

Certicate numberand birth date

igure 12: Overall inormation dees common sense

A signature or a local registrar ocial

would have that many initials? Really?

U K L LeeUkulele? I know its Hawaii,

but what are the odds?

Let margin inconsistencies

Odd comma spacing?

Negrowas the 1961

optionnotArican

Wheres the ocal

seal or stamp?

Date Accepted and led

Certicate number raud?

Dierent onts?


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Photoshop and Illustrator DierencesUp until this point, the document has been viewed in Acrobat.

However, when the le is opened in Illustrator, signicant

inormation is revealed. Keep in mind that I believe the certica

image was compiled and created in Photoshop, but the PDF l

needs to be opened in Illustrator in order to view the embedde

inormation within the PDF. Why Illustrator and not Photoshop

Stick with me while I explain the dierences o both programs.

Photoshop v Illustrator

There are two dierent types o graphics: raster-basedor vect

based. Rasteris merely a ancy word or pixels; thereore a raste

based graphic is a pixel-based image. Photoshop is a raster-bas

program. All scanned images, digital camera photos, and most

images seen on the web sites are pixel-based (raster) les. So w

is vector?

As you might have guessed, Illustrator is a vector-based prograVectorimplies math, thus every line drawn in Illustrator is a

mathematical equation to the computer. Resizing a vector grap

means the program simply recalculates the math and the resul

image retains clarity. Why is this important? There are a couple

o reasons. The vector capability o Illustrator is why embedded

inormation in the PDF le can be viewed in Illustrator.

Whereas opening a PDF le in Photoshop would atten and

rasterize the le to convert the image to pixelsembedded

inormation would not be seen. The main take away point is th

just because you can see this PDF inormation in Illustrator doe

not necessarily mean the le was compiled or created in Illustr

Also the lack o clarity in the certicate items suggests it was a

pixel-based le, not a vector-based le.

Figure 14 oers a comparison o raster vs. vector objects. An

enlarged view o a sample area (rom the ull image shown)displays the pixel antialiasing edges when zoomed in at 1200%

The vector version is crisp even at a 6400% zoom level. There a

no pixelsonly a crisp clear edge line known as apath.

It is important to understand that you cannot convert a pixel im

to a vector image simply by opening it in Illustrator. Unortuna

its still pixel-based, but it can be opened and viewed in Illustra

Also important to consider is a disadvantage o pixel images w

resizing. Enlarging an image in Photoshop, requires the progra

to decide (or guess) where to add pixels, and what color value

assign the added pixels. The result is a loss o clarity or blurrine

This is important to remember, because this would account or

lack o clarity or text elements in Obamas certicate.Figure 15 shows the original low resolution Nordyke image at

normal zoom level (100%). The darkest pixel colors (to select th

text) were isolated and resized to t the size needed or Obama

document. Notice the loss in clarity o text.

Figure 16 shows the resized Nordyke text on a layer above

Obamas nal document. Zoom in to see the similarities o poo

quality text when enlarged, compared to the poor quality text

Obamas document (peaking rom under the resized text). The

is to demonstrate how a low resolution image will become sot

blurry when resized. Photoshop provides enhancing tools that

be used to help compensate or the loss o clarity, but the resu

will still be less than perect when dealing with low resolutionimages.

igure 15: Nordyke image text enlarged

Original low resolution

image o the Nordyke le

File cleaned up slightly

and resized to t the higher

resolution needed or

Obamas le

Both viewed at 100%

to show size dierence

igure 16: Enlarged Nordyke template set above Obama text

Nordyke template

on layer above

Obama PDF text

Enlarged text

results are uzzy

and preliminary

background removal

leaves behind a slight

pixel background halo

Sample window area

Pixel-based

Vector-basedpaths

igure 14: Pixel-based compared to a vector-based le

1200% zoom level

6400% zoom level


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Over Sharpening to CompensateBased on how the text appears in the PDF document, it would

my guess that the user over sharpened poor resolution text in

attempt to achieve clarity. The problem with over sharpening i

that Photoshop is looking or edges o contrast, and increasing

contrast until eventually (in this case), the resulting pixels are e

black or whitewith no transitional pixel colors (or antialiasin

This would explain the clunky bitmapped jagged edges, the so

black text, and the white halo eect surrounding the text.

Figure 17 helps to illustrate how this might work. Step 1 in the

Figure shows the Nordyke enlarged text without a background

Notice that the surrounding edges o the text are grayish in ton

(remnant colors o the original image background). Step 2 show

sharpening lter applied to the text using extreme settings. No

the jagged bitmapped result (starting to look amiliar?). Finally

Step 3 shows a green background applied to a layer below the

text so you can easily see the pixel edges o the text. Notice the

remnant gray pixels turned white (the white halo eect?).

The results in Figure 17 are not an exact duplicate since it s

impossible to know every step taken when creating the docum

but this Figure does display a valid explanation or the quality

o the text. Consider the clarity that would be present i the le

had actually been scanned rom an ofcial document. Recall

Figure 4 (on page 2) in which the scanned text example provid

a signicant amount o clarity. And i the document had been

created digitally by typing text within a graphic program, the

text would have been extremely clear and sharp (since typed

text would most likely be vector). Thus the poor quality is also a

strong indication o image compilation, and also provides anot

good argument against the OCR theory, since an OCR scan wo

convert the text to editable text, thus the text would be clear.

LayersThink o Layers as analogous to transparencies used on a proje

I an image le is unedited, whether scanned, or transerred

rom a digital camera, the le will only have one attened layer

In keeping with the transparency analogy, this would be like

having the le printed on one transparency and showing it on

the projector. When a portion o an image is selected and copie

to a new layer, it would be like having that selected object on a

separate transparency above the starting transparency image.

allows you to move the object around independently o the ot

surrounding layers (or transparencies).

Figure 18 shows a screen capture o an Excel le, ocusing on ttab text (to demonstrate moving text around). The starting ima

shows one layer. The rst our capital letters are in the wrong o

in both image tab areas. The correct order or both tabs (in this

example) should display the letters as RBGC. Figure 19 shows

the copied letters moved into the proper position and the Laye

panel shows each copied letter on a separate layer which make

repositioning easy to accomplish. Notice an additional layer wa

created or each tab and lled with the tab background color in

areas o the aected original letter positions to keep the old let

rom show through behind the new letter copies. In other word

part o a B might show through i behind the letter C. The bloc

gray or white tab color between the old letter and new letter sothe problem and leaves the original image intact.

igure 17: Eects o over sharpening a resized image

Original resized Nordyke text

with gray surrounding pixels

Ater sharpen settings are applied

Smart Sharpen Filter

using extreme settings

Checkerboard pattern

in preview indicates

transparent areas o layer

Green background added to layer

below, Note the jagged text and

white surrounding pixels

1

2

3

igure 18: Text letters on Excel screen capture will be moved

One layer

C & B positions needto be reversed

C & G positions needto be reversed

igure 19: Text manipulation via layers

C & B ater positions

are reversed

C & G ater positions

are reversed

Separate layers or gray tab manipulation

Separate layers or white tab manipulation


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Obamas Certifcate PDF File in IllustratorThe previous page oered a crash course in layers, but the mai

idea is that they allow or the ability to manipulate or repositio

objects separately within a documentemphasis on manipula

At rst glance, when opening Obamas PDF le in Illustrator, yo

may not notice any dierences. Adobe programs oer many

dierent panelseach with its own purpose. The two crucial

panels that need to be open or this discussion are the Layers aLinks panel as shown in Figure20. This is where the un begins

I playing along and youre not amiliar with these programs, a

panels are toggled on or o via the Windows menu. So i you d

not see these panels opened by deault, just go to Windows an

click each panel name to toggle each panel on as needed.

Layers and Clipping Masks

At rst glance, the Layers panel appears to have only one layer,

but the Layers panel in Illustrator varies slightly compared to th

same panel in Photoshop. In Photoshop, the layer stacking ord

determines what object is on top or bottom. The same is true in

Illustrator, but due to the vector nature o this program, you ca

also have an object layer order within each layersub-layersaddition to multiple layers to determine order. Figure 20 shows

where the toggle icon is located to collapse or expand the view

o each layer. Click to expand the Layer as needed and a Group

revealed.

These groups are made up o the object and a clipping path, so

what is a clipping path? Recall that in vector programs, the edg

outline o each object is known as a path. When objects are pix

based, there are no paths to dene each specic outline (or

example, typed text is still pixels, not vector paths or the text),

the outside edge o each pixel object image becomes known a

Clipping Path. In other words, a path is generated or the outs

boundarywhere the object ends.Additionally, all the individual objects import into Illustrator as

grouped objectthe total composite image o this document

order to have ree movement o each individual layered object

they need to be ungrouped. Perorm the ollowing steps:

Press Ctrl+A to Select All(Mac users: Command+A).

Right-clickinside the document image and click the option

Release Clipping Mask(see Figure 20).

Repeat the above step a second time to release any sub-

grouping o objects.

On the Layers panel, click the Expand icon as necessary to

reveal all sub-layer objects (see Figure 21).Notice that each Group layer is made up o subgroups which

consist o the clipping path (the edge boundary) and the actua

pixel object (also seen in Figure 21). The rst column in the Lay

panel displays an eye icon which controls the visibility or each

object. Simply click on this icon to toggle the visibility on or o

Figure22 shows the visibility toggled oor the bottom group

the background pattern.

Also, try this, click the Selection Tool (shown in Figure 22), then

click and drag on any o the grouped objects within the docum

to select it and move the selected object to a new location. Can

you do this with any o the ofcial documents you scan? At the

risk o sounding like a broken record, this is not normal, unless document has been compiled digitally.

igure 20: PDF le opened in Illustrator

Layers panel

Collapse or Expand icon

Release Clipping Mask

Window menu Links panel

igure 22: Visibility o Background layer pattern toggled o

Layer group visibility toggled o


Clipping Mask path

Window menu Links panel

Selection Tool

igure 21: Objects displayed on the Links & Layers panel

Layer visibility icon


Clipping Mask path

Links panel

Sub-Layer Group


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igure 23: Link Inormation or Onaka stamp object

Double-click to open

Link Inormation dialog box

Scale Inormation:

24% scale, Rotated -90

igure 24: Link Inormation background pattern object

Background Link Inormation dialog box

Scale Inormation:

48% scale, Rotated -90

Similar to the Layers panel, the Links panel should only display

one link (i this was a normally scanned image). Multiple links a

also indicators o image manipulation since they reerence obj

added to the document (not part o the original document).

Double-click any o the link items seen in the Links panel to dis

a Link Inormation dialog box (or additional inormation).

Figure 23 shows the Link Inormation or the Onaka stamp objThe important ocus has to do with the scale inormation which

shows the object was scaled 24% and rotated -90. Most o the

links show similar scale inormation except or the background

pattern. Figure 24 shows the Link Inormation dialog box whic

indicates the background pattern object has been scaled at 48

(instead o 24%). Again, this inconsistency is another indicator

image manipulation that reutes the OCR naysayer argument. I

the document is scanned, regardless o whether OCR sotware

was used or not, there is still a consistency in the scanning proc

(which is not present in this document). Items will not scale at

dierent sizes during a scan.

The OCR Argument Explored Further

OCRwhich again stands or Optical Character Recognition

scan a document or text and convert any images o text to live

text which can be edited. The text responds as i you were in a

Word document. The text can be selected, changed, copied an

pasted. I the PDF had been scanned using OCR sotware (as m

claim); the document would also be able to search or keyword

In other words, when opening the PDF le, you would be able

type in a keyword in the nd dialog box and the document wo

recognize the word. This does not happen when opening Obam

PDF le.

Additionally, the properties dialog box would reect which on

were used in the document. Figure 25a reects the Font Prope

dialog box in Obamas PDF certicate le. This can be viewed b

going to the File menu > Properties, then click on the Font ta

the Document Properties dialog box. As you can see, this dialog

is empty indicating that the PDF le does not recognize any te

In contrast, onts can be seen aterthe le was then processed

through the OCR Text Recognition option in Acrobat (ound

on the Document menu). For

anyone playing along, go to the

Document menu and select OCR T

Recognition, and then clickRecog

Text Using OCR. Acrobat will then

perorm a scan on the document a

convert any text ound in the imageditable text.

The Acrobat Find box is then able

to locate and recognize words in th

document, but more importantly,

Figure 25b shows that all the onts

recognized during the process are

listed in the Font Properties dialog

Interestingly enough, the le no lo

shows multiple layers in Illustrator,

which also contradicts the claims m

by the naysayers.

igure 25a: Font Properties o PDF le

Document Font Propertieso original PDF le

Document Font Propertiesater OCR Text Recognition

Figure 25b: Font Properties dialog ater OCR Text Recognition


11/12


igure 26: Excel capture with layers saved as a PSD le

igure 27: Deault settings in Illustrator preserves PSD layers

igure 28a: The Links panel and Layers panel ater opening

Click the Layers panel menuand choose Flatten Artwork

Saving the PSD (Photoshop) Layered FileAs stated earlier in this report, it is my theory that the le was

compiled and created in Photoshop, but some work might hav

been done in Illustrator as well. A Photoshop le (known as a P

le) will preserve all the layers created (as long as the image ha

been attened). The Excel capture used previously in the repor

(and seen in Figure 26) will be used again or the purposes o t

next demonstration.

When the PSD le is opened in Illustrator a Photoshop Import

Options dialog box displays as seen in Figure 27. The deault

settings will preserve the layers and convert them to an object

which merely means that each pixel-based object will have the

outer path to distinguish the boundaries o that object.

Figure 28a shows the opened PSD le in Illustrator. Notice the

Links panel displays the layer objects as links (similar to Obama

le), and the Layers panel displays the layers in the same order

as the Photoshop counterpart seen in Figure 26. The process o

attening the document in Illustrator is also a similar process

compared to Photoshop. The user would click on the Layers pa

menu icon (see icon callout in Figure 28a) and click on the FlatArtworkoption. In Photoshop the menu option would be Flat

Image.

While the process may be similar the results are not. When the

document is attened in Photoshop, it becomes one attened

layer in the traditional sense (as previously discussed). Howeve

as Figure 28b shows, the Layers panel in Illustrator attens the

layers by placing all the objects into a separate sub-layer conta

within one main layer. Recall that vector programs can contain

layers. In addition, i the user were to select the entire documen

and then go to the Object menu to choose Clipping Mask>

Make, the result is the opposite o the procedure used to releas

the clipping mask group. This will cause all the sub-layers to beconverted to the groups also seen in Figure28b.

When saving the le as a PDF rom Illustrator, the deault settin

will Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilitieswhich means

will retain all the object (sub-layer) inormation within the PDF

Thus when the PDF le is opened, the layer and sub-layer grou

are still available. Theres a very strong possibility that the creat

Obamas certicate le ollowed a similar process.

Figure 28b: The Layers panel beore and ater Flatten Artw

7 Layers beore fattening 1 Layer ater fattening

Sub-layer groups


12/12

Mara Zebest grew up in Baltimore MD, where her parents cultivated her

lie-long love o art and graphic design. She spent 26 years as a Navy wie,

traveling around the country with their two children; until settling down in

the Sacramento area in 1990.

Mara has served as co-author on the Inside Photoshop series o books as we

as Photoshop Elements 2.

Mara has served as Technical Editor on numerous books on Photoshop,Illustrator, Xara, and Microsot Ofce series.

Mara also teaches private classes on Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop

and Microsot Ofce to Goverment Employees and Fortune 500 corporations

Bouton, G., Zebest, M. (Contributing Author). (2000). Inside Adobe Photoshop 6. Indianapolis. New Riders Publishing.

Bouton, G., Zebest, M. (2001). Inside Adobe Photoshop 6 Limited Edition. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing.

Stanley, R. (2001). The Complete Idiots Guide to Adobe Photoshop 6. Indianapolis: Que Publishing. (Contributor Graphics).

Bouton, G., Zebest, M. (2002). Inside Photoshop 7. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) Indianapolis: New Rider Publishing.

Huss,D., Zebest, M. (2002). Photoshop Elements 2.0: 50 Ways to Create Cool Pictures. Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing.Bouton, G., Zebest, M. (2004). Inside Photoshop CS. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) Indianapolis: Sams Publishing.

Giordan, D. (2005). How to Use Adobe Photoshop CS2. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) Indianapolis: Sams Publishing.

Giordan, D. (2005). The Art o Photoshop: CS2 Edition. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) Indianapolis: Sams Publishing.

Bouton, G. (2008).Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended Retouching Motion Pictures. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) Boston: Cengage Technology,

Cengage Learning.

Jenkins, S. (2009). How to Do Everything Adobe Illustrator CS4. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) McGraw-Hill.

Grey, T., Burian, P. (2007). Photoshop Elements 5 Workow: The Digital Photographers Guide. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) Indianapolis: Wiley

(Sybex) Publishing.

Bouton, G. (2010).Xara Xtreme 5 The Ofcial Guide. (Zebest, M., Tech. Ed.) McGraw-Hill.

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