[mike182d]

"I just opened a text to PDF document in Adobe Illustrator. There were no layers in the original, just text processing.

In Illustator there was Layer 1 which included a layer Group comprised of a layer for each line of text, some path and clipping path layers, like we see in the Obama doc. All of this separating, grouping and layering was done by the software."

A digitally generated text document (Word, etc.) has meta data that Adobe has to work with when generating a PDF. A scanned document does NOT possess this same data. Apples and oranges. Whatever software is used to scan the document may create these layers too but it WILL NOT create a clipping mask. These are only generated in programs like Photoshop or Illustrator.

If there were "just" layers, I wouldn't be as skeptical. The presence of a clipping mask reveals a poor attempt to flatten the image and cover up manipulation.

I could be wrong though. Has any paper document you've scanned created a clipping mask?

[D-fendr]

These are only generated in programs like Photoshop or Illustrator.

That's my point. They're opening a PDF in Illustrator.

The presence of a clipping mask reveals a poor attempt to flatten the image and cover up manipulation.

I just opened a jpeg photographed, saved as PDF, in Illustrator. There's a Clipping Path Layer.

[D-fendr]

Should be: jpeg *photograph*. IOW, pure flat pixels.

[D-fendr]

To be more specific to your question here:

Has any paper document you've scanned created a clipping mask?

I just took a scanned paper doc. As tiff or jpeg, opened in Illustrator, I get only Layer1 and ImageLayer. As PDF, I get Layer1, GroupLayer, ImageLayer, ClippingLayer.

As you know there's a lot of variables here - scanner, settings, software/versions - but I believe it is a fact that PDFs opened in Illustrator can have many layers not created by a human. Further, that these layers and layer names match what is seen opening the BC PDF in Illustrator.

So all I'm saying here is that the existence of these layers, as described in the article, does not indicate anything out of the ordinary. They do not indicate any human manipulation; further they more strongly indicate software creation.