1) The M is pre-filled on the form. The attendant just has to add A or P.
2) ??
3) That’s the scanning software used to put the document into a PDF.
4) I suspect that the stamp used read Aug 8 196 and then the attended writes in the 1.
5) As in 3 above, you can’t look at pixelation from a scanned into PDF copy. You would need to look at a high-definition picture of the document in order to do pixel analysis - and even then pixelation only matters on digitally altered documents. It doesn’t matter on printed documents that are then scanned.
#1: Agreed.
#2: I don’t know of any scanning software that randomly assigns colors to specific characters. That’s just wierd.
#3: Go look at the file in 400% enlargement, and tell me you think the “S” and the “TANLEY” came from the same source. Trust your eyes.
Regarding #4: The date is a stamp, the kind with rolling months, days and years. Nobody wrote anything. You can tell it is a stamp because it is fully aligned off-horizontal. But the “AUG 8, 196” looks is one color, and the “1” is a whole different color, resolution, background, etc.
#5: I’m no expert. I’m offering an avenue of investigation. Just me and my eyes (I’m a photographer, so I look at enlarged stuff all the time) tell me there was a cut and paste job, and not a very good one. When I go retouch a photo, I can handle each pixel if I want to. Someone cut-and-pasted whole letters here, in my non-expert opinion.