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Hiding Secret Images

Posted Mar 26, 2003 (Updated Apr 25, 2006)

If you're using Internet Explorer for Windows, try loading this image and typing Ctrl-A to highlight it. Is it magic? Or EEE-VIL?! (An explanation of the trick follows.)

How to create your own super-secret images with Photoshop... Create a 2x2 pixel checkerboard pattern with the pencil tool, select the four pixels and select "Define Pattern" from the Edit menu. Now select your foreground layer and select the whole image. Hit "Q" to go into Quick Mask mode, and select "Fill" from the Edit menu. Select "Pattern" from the Use dropdown, set Blending to 100% and click OK to fill the mask with our checkerboard. Hit "Q" to go back to Standard Mode and hit Delete to remove every other pixel from the foreground image. Now adjust the opacity of the background layer until it fades from sight. Save your image as a high-quality JPEG, and you're done.

(Thanks for the trick, bakabon38!)

32 Comments (Add Yours)

Mar 26, 2003
2:58 PM  
Ryan wrote:

How'd Saddam get the ring from Frodo?


Mar 26, 2003
7:09 PM  
nancy wrote:

crazy. thanks for the lesson though, i think i'll have fun with it in the near future.


Mar 27, 2003
6:54 AM  
James wrote:

That = ace.


Mar 27, 2003
3:35 PM  
Quacky wrote:

Can this be done in The Gimp I wonder?


Mar 28, 2003
7:16 AM  
Misato wrote:

A kind of visual cryptography. same detection idea as RuiMark(Japanese).


Mar 28, 2003
12:35 PM  
Konstantinos wrote:

I would just like to welcome our Japanese visitors. (If any of you got a spare Sony DSC-U20, you know where to reach me.)


Mar 28, 2003
12:45 PM  
Andy wrote:

Since midnight, the Bush/Saddam image has been downloaded over 33,650 times, almost entirely by Japanese web surfers. I never knew that weblogs were so big in Japan.


Mar 28, 2003
11:09 PM  
Justin wrote:

Great, but I cant get this to work in Paint Shop Pro 7 :|


Mar 29, 2003
6:05 AM  
Marcus wrote:

Ooh, be careful - a terrorist might see this technique and use it as a new way of transmitting their deviously evil plans, instead of hiding them in porn images like they used to.


Mar 29, 2003
11:43 AM  
Andy Baio wrote:

One of those Japanese weblogs linked to these images (not safe for work when highlighted).


Mar 30, 2003
2:38 PM  
Josh wrote:

Can someone please explain as how to make the 2x2 pattern? I dont understand


Mar 30, 2003
2:54 PM  
Leeran wrote:

Neat Trick, but how do you do it in Paint Shop Pro or Open Canvas?


Mar 30, 2003
7:32 PM  
diggs wrote:

Can't get it to work...anyone have a better explanation?


Mar 31, 2003
5:57 AM  
jun hirax wrote:

I made a little program that makes "hiding secret images" on Windows. You can get the program from my Japanese web cite(http://hirax.net/dekirukana7/ctrl_a/CtrlAmagic.zip).

If you have two Bitmap files, all you have to do are
(1) loading 1st image from "Load Visible Image" button,
(2) loading 2nd image from "Load Hiden Image" button,
(3) ajdusting image by "Hiden Image Average Value" and "Hiden Image Contrast Value",
(4) and save final image by "Save To File".



Apr 2, 2003
9:06 PM  
Bronxy wrote:

I tried it out, and it wouldnt work for me for some reason. Do you think you could email me a PSD of it, and then I can just replace the images? Thanks


Apr 5, 2003
9:37 PM  
Jeremy wrote:

that's very naughty...


Apr 7, 2003
7:40 PM  
Nicholas wrote:

Wow, Japanese people are good at photo editing...


May 2, 2003
7:05 PM  
Melinda wrote:

I couldn't get it to work either but my Blonde kicked in and I clicked on the pic.and a little square on the bottom right hand came up..click on the sqaure and voila...formidable!


May 6, 2003
5:47 PM  
john wrote:

Woah thanks. This is a cool technique, thanks.


May 7, 2003
12:20 PM  
greg wrote:

FYI - it doesn't work in mozilla/phoenix; only IE


May 16, 2003
3:21 AM  
Lester Nelson wrote:

Hey, Mac users who obviously couldn't see the trick: If you have Dreamweaver, insert the image into a new web page and then select it.


Jun 25, 2003
10:11 AM  
Lighdramon wrote:

That CTRL + A magic thing won't work. It doesn't have any choices for the file type when you save the final thing, and I can't figure out how to do it in Photoshop, either.


Jul 9, 2003
3:48 PM  
Jay wrote:

Can someone e-mail me on how to get the 2X2 pixel checkerboard happening on Photoshop? Tried for a while and still can't find how.


Nov 12, 2003
7:53 AM  
AJ wrote:

For some reason the images fail to show up properly on a WinXP machine with MSIE. It works fine on my home XP box with MSIE =\


Jan 12, 2004
4:02 PM  
Hmmm wrote:

Nothing happened that I noticed for me!


Mar 16, 2004
9:53 PM  
Mordo wrote:

>> Can this be done in The Gimp I wonder?
Dude, /fuck/ the GIMP.


Apr 1, 2004
6:53 PM  
Bronxy wrote:

I cant figure out how to use that program. Is there a better program out there, where you just add both images and it does it automatically for you?


Apr 23, 2004
11:17 AM  
HappyGimpUser wrote:

>> Can this be done in The Gimp I wonder?

Yes, this can be done in the GIMP. It is even easier than in Photoshop, thanks to the checkerboard plug-in. The steps are: load your two images in two layers, add a mask to the top layer (right-click on the layer, then "Add Layer Mask"), then run the checkerboard plug-in (Filters->Render->Pattern->Checkerboard), set the size to 1 (default is 10) and there you go! Then you can play with the opacity and other parameters.


Jun 24, 2004
2:56 PM  
john wrote:

this doesn't work. either that or the instructions just suck. You all suck.


Sep 26, 2004
10:10 AM  
اہل سنت سنی اسلام wrote:

Any idea why this doesn't work on mozilla?


Sep 26, 2004
4:44 PM  
Andy Baio wrote:

Simple. The trick works because Internet Explorer shades selected images by darkening every other pixel... Mozilla shades it by darkening every pixel of the image, so the trick fails.


Apr 26, 2005
3:58 AM  
Ben wrote:

So basicly Mozilla shades it properly and I.E. cheats, but let's us have fun with a little trick. Nice one.

Ben


 

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