8/6/2019 Mara Zebest Adobe Analysis: Obama Long-Form Birth Certificate Report; Final Draft
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REPORTBARACK OBAMA: LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICAT
by Mara Zebe
8/6/2019 Mara Zebest Adobe Analysis: Obama Long-Form Birth Certificate Report; Final Draft
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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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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.html8/6/2019 Mara Zebest Adobe Analysis: Obama Long-Form Birth Certificate Report; Final Draft
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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
Collapse or Expand icon
Clipping Mask path
Window menu Links panel
Selection Tool
igure 21: Objects displayed on the Links & Layers panel
Layer visibility icon
Collapse or Expand 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
8/6/2019 Mara Zebest Adobe Analysis: Obama Long-Form Birth Certificate Report; Final Draft
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REPORT BARACK OBAMA: LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE Page 11 of 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
8/6/2019 Mara Zebest Adobe Analysis: Obama Long-Form Birth Certificate Report; Final Draft
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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