Converting a Text File into an Image

[Distant Stare]

I am looking for a way to convert a text file into an image so that it can be distributed easily. Specifically, a rather large text file. I was hoping that there was something like a QR code out there, were you would scan a pattern and it would output text. Does anything like this exist? I attached the text file, it is a geneome.

 

[SIGSEGV]

Change the extension to .png

 

[Sam Losco]

Like an image as in a "screenshot" of the text file contents?

Edit - If so, open it in something that will allow you to export as something else. You can export as a PDF and use online PDF to JPG converters. Or export as HTML, open in your browser and use a full page screenshot add-on to get the whole thing in one shot.

 

[baku]

QR codes can do that, dummy.

 

[Yotsubaaa]

QR codes can do that, dummy.

This.

However, if it's some basic steganography you're actually after (hey it's cool, you could've asked directly! We won't judge here), then you can just concatenate the plaintext (or encrypted, depending on your use case) directly onto the end of a jpg, for instance. Then all anyone needs to do is open the jpg in a text editor to see it.

e.g.
cat puppy.jpg super_sekrit_file.txt > puppy_hiddentext.jpg

or on Windows, presumably this works too:
copy /b puppy.jpg + super_sekrit_file.txt puppy_hiddentext.jpg

Voila: this unsuspecting puppy picture has your entire genome.txt embedded in it.

EDIT: Or it would, if the Kiwi Farms image uploader didn't strip it out. Lol
EDIT2: But for some reason, uploading it in a PM doesn't strip anything and leaves the hidden text intact. Go figure?

 

[Distant Stare]

QR codes can do that, dummy.

it is 200,000 characters long

This.

However, if it's some basic steganography you're actually after (hey it's cool, you could've asked directly! We won't judge here), then you can just concatenate the plaintext (or encrypted, depending on your use case) directly onto the end of a jpg, for instance. Then all anyone needs to do is open the jpg in a text editor to see it.

e.g.
cat puppy.jpg super_sekrit_file.txt > puppy_hiddentext.jpg

or on Windows, presumably this works too:
copy /b puppy.jpg + super_sekrit_file.txt puppy_hiddentext.jpg

Voila: this unsuspecting puppy picture has your entire genome.txt embedded in it.
View attachment 1398268

What is the maximum amount of data I can hide in it? Can I put a few megabytes inside? Also if I were to post the image would it be included with it so that other people can get the data?

 

[Yotsubaaa]

What is the maximum amount of data I can hide in it?

Unlimited. (At least technically. Realistically, people are gonna start getting suspicious if you give them a 2.2TB jpeg.)

Can I put a few megabytes inside?

Easy.

Also if I were to post the image would it be included with it so that other people can get the data?

It turns out the answer is no, at least for embedding inline on Kiwi Farms/presumably other Xenforo imageboards. I suppose you can always add the image as an attachment (e.g. like I've done on my post here), but in that case you can just attach the text file directly anyway.

EDIT: Nope, the KF image loader still strips it even when it's just attached to the post. I guess this shit is actually complicated.

 

[SIGSEGV]

What is the maximum amount of data I can hide in it? Can I put a few megabytes inside? Also if I were to post the image would it be included with it so that other people can get the data?

You can hide as much data as you want. If you cat a zip file onto an image, you can extract the archive by running unzip on the image file, too. Just be aware that if you're trying to hide things in the image, people are probably going to be suspicious if the image is 20 MiB in size.

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

This genome... Is it a talking dog? Asking for a friend.

 

[Distant Stare]

This genome... Is it a talking dog? Asking for a friend.

I have the feeling that soon virus geneomes are going to be regulated information. That geneome I attached is smallpox, which is eradicated. As a result, there are no longer vaccines for it, or immunity in the population. There is a large amount of virologists who want to completely destroy all traces and information about the virus so no one can synthesize it again

Unlimited. (At least technically. Realistically, people are gonna start getting suspicious if you give them a 2.2TB jpeg.)


Easy.


It turns out the answer is no, at least for embedding inline on Kiwi Farms/presumably other Xenforo imageboards. I suppose you can always add the image as an attachment (e.g. like I've done on my post here), but in that case you can just attach the text file directly anyway.

EDIT: Nope, the KF image loader still strips it even when it's just attached to the post. I guess this shit is actually complicated.

I need an image that can be posted on image boards and still retain the data. I figure if it can spread on image boards the data is safe.

 

[Yotsubaaa]

I need an image that can be posted on image boards and still retain the data. I figure if it can spread on image boards the data is safe.

https://9chan.tw/b/thread/80213

Works on 9chan at least.

 

[Distant Stare]

https://9chan.tw/b/thread/80213

Works on 9chan at least.

>he posted a puppy with instructions on how to make a bioweapon inside on 9chan because he was bored and he thought it would be funny

What a time to be alive

 

[Yotsubaaa]

>he posted a puppy with instructions on how to make a bioweapon inside on 9chan because he was bored and he thought it would be funny

What a time to be alive

Hopefully the other person that uses 9chan is a responsible, upstanding citizen.

 

[Distant Stare]

Hopefully the other person that uses 9chan is a responsible, upstanding citizen.

Glowies are about to close in
Watch as that warrant canary burns in 72 hours

F

 

[(((Obar Lazcano Kamz)))]

Glowies are about to close in
Watch as that warrant canary burns in 72 hours

F

let me get a copy of the bioweapon

 

[Sam Losco]

I have the feeling that soon virus geneomes are going to be regulated information. That geneome I attached is smallpox, which is eradicated. As a result, there are no longer vaccines for it, or immunity in the population. There is a large amount of virologists who want to completely destroy all traces and information about the virus so no one can synthesize it again

The Soviets made smallpox bioweapons. They were making all sorts of crazy bioweapons back in the fucking 70s.

 

[Distant Stare]

The Soviets made smallpox bioweapons. They were making all sorts of crazy bioweapons back in the fucking 70s.

Fun fact: They lost them too. After the collapse they miss placed a few tons of frozen virus cultures. The best guess last I heard is that some of it was sold and or captured. The best candidates for who got some was Israel, North Korea, and Iran.

Not like it matters. With today's biotechnology you could make it in a lab from scratch if you needed too.

Smallpox could easily kill more people than North Korea's nuclear program. While a nuke is unlikely to make it to the US because of the limited quality and quantity of NK ICBMs, the reason why North Korea invests into nukes is that they have a more dangerous reputation. And so they are easier to threaten people with, and get attention on the world stage. Just another reason why democracy is shit. People react to the flashy nukes, why ignoring that everyone and their uncle with a few million dollars and a national laboratory could make Covid-19 MK2

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

It turns out the answer is no, at least for embedding inline on Kiwi Farms/presumably other Xenforo imageboards. I suppose you can always add the image as an attachment (e.g. like I've done on my post here), but in that case you can just attach the text file directly anyway.

EDIT: Nope, the KF image loader still strips it even when it's just attached to the post. I guess this shit is actually complicated.

It depends on the site, KF didn't strip data until a couple of months ago. Social media sites does it not only to recompress them but because people are idiots and there can be all kinds of details in the metadata like GPS coordinates, date/time taken, smallpox genomes etc. Even thumbnails can be hazard, a british TV personality of some kind uploaded an image of herself from the shoulders up but the original 640x480 embedded thumbnail from the camera showed that the image was cropped and she was topless. Whoops!

 

[Yotsubaaa]

It depends on the site, KF didn't strip data until a couple of months ago. Social media sites does it not only to recompress them but because people are idiots and there can be all kinds of details in the metadata like GPS coordinates, date/time taken, smallpox genomes etc.

Actually, Kiwi Farms doesn't strip the metadata from uploaded images. I just double-checked this now: I know at least one poor Kiwi has got their fucking GPS coordinates embedded in a phone snap they put up on one of the General threads. It's still there, and I can still see everything when I download the image and run exiftool on it.

So yeah, I was a bit surprised that it stripped off the concatenated genome in my puppy picture.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Actually, Kiwi Farms doesn't strip the metadata from uploaded images. I just double-checked this now: I know at least one poor Kiwi has got their fucking GPS coordinates embedded in a phone snap they put up on one of the General threads. It's still there, and I can still see everything when I download the image and run exiftool on it.

So yeah, I was a bit surprised that it stripped off the concatenated genome in my puppy picture.

Huh, I've alerted some users in the past about embedded GPS coordinates in images but haven't seen anything lately, uploaded smartphone pictures are now .webp (more specifically, .jpg.webp so a conversion is happening somewhere) and I have never been able to upload an image in that format here. Well, shows what I know.