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up vote 6 down vote favorite

If I have saved an image in JPG format after doing some edits, is there a way to identify that it is edited with Photoshop?

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2 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

it depends what you're looking for.

1) File Meta-info: the meta information contained within the file can reveal which s/w saved the photo last (with possible edits). But this can easily be changed afterwards or deleted by another s/w.

2) Image data: now, if you're looking to find out if a photo file has been tempered (edits made to it), you should look into Error Level Analysis and photo forensics.

errorlevelanalysis.com, hackerfactor.com and other such software are only made available to governments!

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up vote 5 down vote

It's easу. Photoshop CAN write its name into the EXIF Software tag, so you can locate images that have been edited by Photoshop using any photo management program that can locate images by the EXIF Software tag:

enter image description here

However, if you save your images as JPEG using File > Save for Web option (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + S) make sure that you checked the option below:

enter image description here

otherwise you will not be able to identify your images later by EXIF/XMP Software tags.

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What if I modify the EXIF to specifically not note that the software was photoshop? How can you then tell that it was or was not edited in photoshop? – dpollitt Aug 13 '12 at 16:48
Not by EXIF/XMP software tags, but yes by other means, known colloquially as "I can haz see d pixelz". :) (plus, what dpollitt said.) – William C Aug 13 '12 at 16:51
1  
Simple check, even when No EXIF is selected open the file in a hex editor and the first few lines include 'Adobe'. – Phil Aug 14 '12 at 0:39
I tried just now, and I ws able to to edit the file and substitute another word, such as "ScanJet", for "Adobe", in the file and the image was still valid. But when I tried to put in larger data it corrupted the image. – user17784 Mar 16 at 2:06

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