Someone at the National Review already took care of that one:
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.You claim that the process done by the WH included OCR and then somehow undid it?
I don't claim anything about what happened. I claim that it's possible that if you use scanning software that creates an invisible OCR layer on a PDF, then open that PDF in software that doesn't support OCR, then save a PDF from that second piece of software, you could plausibly end up with a PDF that has been subject to an OCR routine at one point but no longer has searchable text.
I'm not even wedded to the OCR theory. I've read that straightforward PDF optimization can result in some areas being pure black and others still in color, and in variation in pixel sizes. I posted a link to one such discussion earlier in this thread, from a woman that WND called an "expert" when they thought she supported their case.
The technical specs in the file show the programs used - if you think some crazy process was followed, do us all a favor and replicate it.
As far as I know, they just say it was created with "Mac OS X 10.6.7 Quartz PDFContext," which isn't a program. It's part of the native OS X PDF handling software, which means the file was last touched by a Mac program, probably Preview. But that's all we know.
The technical specs in the file show the programs used - if you think some crazy process was followed, do us all a favor and replicate it.
As far as I know, they just say it was created with "Mac OS X 10.6.7 Quartz PDFContext," which isn't a program. It's part of the native OS X PDF handling software, which means the file was last touched by a Mac program, probably Preview. But that's all we know.
I remember a joke about a computer that was developed to translate English and Chinese. As the machine was being demonstrated to a reporter they fed in the English phrase "Out of sight, out of mind." Out came a string of Chinese Characters. The reporter said "That's very impressive, but how do I know that's an accurate translation?" The Developer responded, "We'll feed these characters back into the machine and translate them from Chinese to English." They fed the Chinese Characters into the machine and the English Translation came out: "Invisible Idiot."
I think that is EXACTLY what will happen if you took an image file and fed it back through a Mac computer with the appropriate software, with one exception. The idiot wouldn't be invisible. After he saw the result, he would also no longer be an idiot. (one would hope.)