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Question

Privacy problem with TextLayers and History

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
March 31, 2021
4 replies
3565 views

I have a .psd file I use to create certificates for my online courses and I save (not export) them to jpg. When I open this jpg file using a text editor like Notepad++ I find many information related to history and layer content from previous user data(!) under <xmpMM:History> and <photoshop:TextLayers> tags!

These info are removed if I use TinyPNG or any other JPG compression site or application, but how do I configure Photoshop to avoid saving this information? It´s already configured not no save metadata in Export option, but this doesn´t affect when the file is saved instead of exported.

Problem or error

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Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

You could also use my script here with the Remove All - Metadata (New File) or XMP options:

The code is at the bottom of page 1:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop/free-script-remove-selected/td-p/10104624

Info on saving, installing/running scripts here:

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

Stephen Marsh

Community Expert

Another method is to use ExifTool to remove all unwanted metadata:

exiftool -all= -CommonIFD0= --icc_profile:all "path/to top-level folder/or image file.jpg"

To remove all Adobe related metadata, the following command could be used, however, I would only use this as a fallback option if the first command didn't remove the Photoshop text layer info:

exiftool -all= -CommonIFD0= -Adobe:All= --icc_profile:all "path/to top-level folder/or image file.jpg"

Mac users would replace the double straight " quote marks with single straight quote ' marks opening/closing the file path (only required if there are word spaces in the file path).

jane-e

Community Expert

I am out of the office and can't test this, but would it work if you created a template of your certificate and used that as the starter file for each student?

To make a PS Template, simply rename the extension to .psdt and reopen it for each student to get an untitled document that you can close without saving after you save the jpeg, then reopen the template for the next student.

~ Jane

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

Do you have the same problems with "Save for Web (Legacy)" with metadata turned off in the save dialog?

🤔 🤔

Klingon 2021Author

Participating Frequently

No, if I use "Save for Web (Legacy)" AND Metadata = None, no content from text layers is saved inside the file (JPG ou PNG). If Metadata is enabled, then the content is saved (as expected).

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

… but how do I configure Photoshop to avoid saving this information? …

By @Klingon 2021

Do you have the same problems with "Save for Web (Legacy)" with metadata turned off in the save dialog?

🤔 🤔

By @pixxxelschubser

No, if I use "Save for Web (Legacy)" AND Metadata = None, no content from text layers is saved inside the file (JPG ou PNG). If Metadata is enabled, then the content is saved (as expected).

By @Klingon 2021

Problem solved with PS

😉

JJMack

Community Expert

It sounds like you configured your Photoshop preferences to record history logs in your files metadata. These logs will be is the files you save. You would need to Change your Photoshop preferences then strip all your image files with history metadata metadata.

JJMack

Klingon 2021Author

Participating Frequently

Nope, History log is also disabled.

I fixed this (incredible) privacy problem compressing all images using TinyPNG Premium but I want to Photoshop NOT save this data.

Klingon 2021Author

Participating Frequently

OK after some tests I found out what´s happening: when Photoshop save a JPG file: it saves all text layer content (including invisible layers) in plain text inside the jpg file!

I created a file with nine individual text layers (1 to 9), while only Layer 1 is visible. As soon as you save this file to JPG or PNG (and probably many other image formats), all content from all text layers (even invisible ones) can be found in plain text inside these files!

To avoid that, when saving a file the option Layer in .PSD must be disabled even if the saved file is a layersless image file and not a .psd file!

Why Photoshop keep text layer content in layerless image file formats as JPG or PNG? This is a HUGE privacy/security problem as Layers option is enabled by default.

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