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A colleague and I find ourselves at odds about the details of a transaction. As proof to support his claims, I asked him to send me a copy of an invoice form he received with an order. The colleague says he used a scanner that was part of a large multi-function copier when he scanned the invoice to a PDF document.

Upon receiving the PDF document, I thought a few things about the scan looked unusual. In an attempt to look a bit closer, I decided to open the document in my copy of Adobe Photoshop CS5. Immediately upon opening, I noticed that the document has several layers. A background layer for the colorfully watermarked background of the invoice, another layer holds most of the static format of the text that is common to all of the invoices from this company. Yet another layer holds most of the text that changes per order, and another layer with the signature of the shipping manager from the warehouse.

I know some scanners can use OCR (optical character recognition) to embed extra information in a PDF so it can be searched and edited, but I had never seen the information from a scan broken out into multiple layers in the document like that. My question is: In what ways could any scanner separate the contents of a scanned physical document into multiple layers in a PDF file?

Mike Skott
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  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hljkZxgogcY&feature=youtu.be&t=13 This quandry you have reminds me of the statment from the hologram there. – Psycogeek Aug 22 '15 at 18:09
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    OCR software can seperate out "pictures" from text, it then will have these pictures in objects (boxes) , that formatting can then be sent to word docs or pdfs. What it cannot do (easily) is create a fully correct blank invoice as a background, depending on many things. So you could analise this background, and think if the program left holes there to fill in, or was somehow an aquired blank invoice.. Anything could have been photoshopped anyway (still can) , You could ask for a simple non-ocr scan as that would be approprite for "proof" but your still in the same position, trust or dont. – Psycogeek Aug 22 '15 at 18:36
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    If the document was simply scanned, there would be no layers. The layers you describe would be from creating the PDF from the software that creates the invoice. So he either sent you a copy of an invoice that was already in electronic form or created it. This is the same issue as was raised over President Obama's birth certificate. The claim was that it was scanned from hard copy that predated computer records, but the file contained extensive layers that were modifications. – fixer1234 Aug 23 '15 at 00:31

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I tend to lean towards practical solutions. Here, you want to know whether what you received is authentic or not.

So, discreetly find the make and the model of the multi-function device. Then:

  • Post it here. One of us might know what it can do and what it can't do.
  • Contact the manufacturer. Start with their website, then maybe an online chat or phone call. They'll tell you what it can do.
  • If you have social skills, find a shop that sells the device and ask the shop keeper show you what it can do.
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I believe the "layers" you're seeing are called "annotations" in the PDF specifications: http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/acrobat/pdfs/pdf_reference_1-7.pdf

It seems the scanner created with PDF with an image of the document and annotated it with text from OCR, and a watermark. Having the signature there as a separate annotation seems strange to me.

Just Passing Through
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  • You might want to add your answer - http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/birthcertificate.asp, scanners may be smart enough to pull the signature, etc out as well. – dsolimano Jan 19 '17 at 17:11
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This is precisely why we have never seen a photocopy of Obama's birth certificate. It is a scanned image, not a photocopy. The two are completely and utterly different and one cannot be easily manipulated without leaving evidence. Obamas scanned birth certificate is layered and may or may not be real. Best example you can find that answers your question.

Roy Pat
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    Of course any document without security features like money can be manipulated easily. That includes both the original electronic document as well as any rasterized copy of it. Your answer seems incorrect to me. It also doesn't answer the OP's question. – Daniel B Apr 27 '16 at 20:52
  • Welcome to Super User! Please read the question again carefully. Your answer does **not** answer the original question. – DavidPostill Apr 27 '16 at 22:38