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.
UPDATE II: For those of you who still aren’t convinced, here’s a one-page PDF that I just scanned and optimized, so you can see for yourself that an optimized PDF shows up in Illustrator as layers. (I didn’t spend hours getting the settings right.)
Terrific. We will know be treated to months, maybe years of wild internet speculation about the "layers" in Obama's birth certificate. I'm sure there will be legions of self-described PDF or OCR "experts" proclaiming that this is all a poorly constructed hoax, perpetrated by named and unnamed individuals, working in concert-like synchronicity to obscure what clearly is Obama's Kenyan birth, or something.
Somewhere, Robert W Welsh is overcome with glee.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Layer Funtime: They're not layers. Illustrator is simply able to interpret PDF image data and *present it to you* as layers.
Open the file up in a text editor to see for yourself:
<< /Length 21 0 R /Type /XObject /Subtype /Image /Width 34 /Height 70 /ImageMask
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusetrue /BitsPerComponent 1 /Filter /FlateDecode >>
stream
x^A]<8f>1^NÂ@^L^D^]¥ LK<81><94>/PÒ<99><9f><99>§ÝSî )OÂØì<9a> A®^X9<97>Ýõ^æñ^LÍì^B<<80><90>/<9c>Ó¸^Pê<80>^Qê^FD¦¯<98>b<81>7¤í¶r|lå%Ü q<83>Økï<93>ì^KÐfNS}g<86>^Nä<80>+Å^Z<80><85>î¨;þ<8d>e^C¦^N<87>^H¼Â<94>vb^TCÑñp^P¶_ûM&C=Ñ^_è&æÚgì©^T<81>|°Ô6£^A¤^Zò³åþg«<94>s»*^7^Htå¢7>^Gè8
endstream
Disclaimer - I believe our president was born in Hawaii.
That out of the way, after the entire Rather-gate incident with President Bush's records and how low mainstream media/investigative journalism has fallen over the last few decades coupled with the amateur-hourishness of this administration in the past few years, pardon me if I am not entirely convinced that this was not “produced” in a laughably rookie fashion.
I’m sorry but this IS the administration that brought us “You have to pass the bill in order to know what is in it”, such luminaries as Van Jones and company as well as our "official presidential gifting" follies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI've scanned a lot of images. What you scan is what you see. What I haven't seen when I've scanned something is where they show letters cut off such as what looks like a "5" on the left hand side where it bends down. Also, the dashed green lines on the background go straight across, and the black lines of the form curve down. It they scanned the black lines only, then why transpose onto green lined paper, why not just show the scanned document on whatever was the original paper as I always do when I scan a document. This doesn't pass the smell test. Either this is a forgery on green paper, or they are hiding something on that left side that was cropped off. Why can't we just get a scanned copy of the original birth certificate, showing every notation on margins, every smudge, everything? Frankly, until today I was thinking this birther thing was much ado about nothing, but after seeing this document I now have many suspicions about Obama's birth.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI've never been a 'Birther', but I do know a fair amount about printing.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRegardless of the layers issue, when the document is enlarged, all black copy has white around it. With green safety paper as a background, this can not occur unless there was some type of manipulation along the way.
i would dispute the claim that forgers would not be that stupid. i mean look at the brain surgeon who did the dan rather memos. He didn't even use a typewriter.
but yeah, it doesn't look like this is a serious issue.
btw, word verification: case closed. heh.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat kind of scanners do they use? The green background looks fakey -- normally a scanned image looks pretty much like a photocopy, doesn't it? What kind of book was this stored in? (You can see bending by a "margin" but the green check pattern extends all around the margins -- do they have some sort of green-checked cut-out on top of the scanner or what? What's the explanation?)
I don't know what a proper document is supposed to look like; most people don't. I'd like to seem some enterprising Hawaiians born around the same time request similar documentation and see if what they get looks like Obama's version (with layers and weird margin folds.)
I've never been into the birther thing before, and still believe he was born in Hawaii, but this does look kinda weird!
Not sure if Trump has claimed a scalp, or just made things worse for the GOP???
If there's anything to birtherism, it's a scandal. Otherwise it's the ultimate distraction.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNothing to see here - this is the sort of output you'd expect to find if you use 'Optimize Scanned PDF' in Acrobat. It slices the large image up to save on bandwidth.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Also, the dashed green lines on the background go straight across, and the black lines of the form curve down."
it's a micro-film image *printed* onto the safety green paper. Thus the curved image and straight green lines. It's obvious and common with copies of birth certificates.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The green background looks fakey -- normally a scanned image looks pretty much like a photocopy, doesn't it?"
It is security paper, as Right of Center points out. You see this sort of thing often when it comes to old university records, for instance. The original academic record may be scanned, cropped, and the image stored in a database. When an official transcript is requested, the scanned, cropped image is printed directly on the university's security paper, which gives you the messy result you see here.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@RightofCenter: Ah! So, it's a scan of a printout of an old-time scan. That makes a lot of sense, now. Why use the weird green security paper, though? Does the original background look slightly different (some thing doesn't scan, like a check)?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe only "layer" I can see is that Obama's nonsense reasoning for this release which could have happened anytime in the last several years just plain layed an egg.
Now let's get back to the real issues and defeat him in 2012 so the yolk's on him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe OCR explanation has flaws. Only some of the text is layered, like the dates. There are layers that are not text, like green dots over the background paper.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me - into us - clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhere's Charles Johnson when you really need him? ;-) I'm not a "birther" - and if this is an example of misdirection or a soviet-style counter guessing-game diversion, it maybe successful - but why all the "work" on the document?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey're not Photoshop layers, they're discreet elements in Illustrator. One is a compound path that creates a hole in the document affecting the certification stamp (and dates).
At the top there's a blank or empty element that is comprised of two layers.
Three of them directly affect the type presented in boxes 17, 20, and 22. That "type" is a graphic element that could be changed or altered based on this. It would be nice if there was an official explanation.
Ever hear of the Witness Protection Agency? Their job is to create new identity, including birth certificates. Then there's the millions he spent hiding this document. Why?? Obama will always be suspect.
Of course, the other arguement is that he gave up any claim to US citizenship when he attended school as an Indonesian citizen. And the school funds he applied for in CA as a foreign student. And the foreign funds that paid for his Harvard education.
Too many are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the sake of their political affiliation. The man is a con artist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf the certificate has been forged, I can understand why there could be such a rookie mistake. If Mr. Obama was born elsewhere I'm sure the cirle of truth is very very small. Within that circle, how many people are capable of creating this document?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf the explanation for the layers is correct then where's the interpreted bits of the embossed seal?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePrinting black text on a green background WILL NOT add white anti-aliasing to the fonts, nor will converting it to PDF.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNathan, thank you very much for the (necessary) techno-weenie explanation. "After further review, the play stands."
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