Hackszine.com: Scripting Photoshop with Javascript

Scripting Photoshop with Javascript - anti-redaction example

Thomas Robinson was experimenting with a way to recover censored text from documents that use the Photoshop "mosaic" filter to redact text. One way to brute force a solution to a redacted message is to run the mosaic filter with a number of input letters, looking for visual matches that progressively uncover the censored text.

Manually performing this trial and error approach would take quite a bit of time, but Thomas was able to automate this by writing a Javascript program that interfaces directly with Photoshop CS3 and performs the necessary filters and test operations to uncover the secret message. This is cool on a number of levels, not only for the particulars of the example, but also for the fact that you can now script Photoshop in plain old Javascript.

There are so many cool things you could do with an easy scripting interface to Photoshop. Check the video above to see this particular application in action, or follow the links below for the full discussion and example code for writing the Javascript code to make something like this work.

Recovering Censored Text Using Photoshop and JavaScript
Photoshop Redaction Recovery Sample Code

Posted by Jason Striegel | Oct 21, 2008 08:27 PM
Cryptography, Design, Productivity | Permalink | Comments (1)

Comments

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Posted by: Frode Danielsen on October 22, 2008 at 5:46 AM

Scripting in Photoshop

As far as I know you've been able to script Photoshop with JavaScript for quite a while now. I recall writing a couple of JavaScripts for Photoshop back in 2003 at least, although you did need to install a plugin for Photoshop I think.

This is a cool script though :) At least those using the mozaic filter for hiding info is trying harder than the case I discovered while in the army to hide the identity of a soldier by using the Invert filter. Didn't need a JavaScript to crack that...