How to make an image file of sensitive text information.

The trick is to use Paint, one of the Windows accessories, to make an image file of text. There is nothing to stop you adding the text to a picture, but this procedure puts it onto a white background. (You must type mspaint if you use the run command.) If you save the file as a jpg it will be very small and open below the text in an email client program. Save it to My Documents for convenience, this is the default folder for attachments in Outlook Express.

1. Open "Paint", and click on the "A".
2. Re-size the white page to something small by left clicking and dragging the "handles".
3. Mark a text box on the page by left clicking and dragging.
4. Choose a reasonable font size, say 12, and a suitable type face.
5. Type in the text details and then click outside the box.
6. Go to "File", and "Save As" "anyname.jpg" in My Documents.
7. Attach the resulting file to the mail.

The image will be displayed below the text in most mail programs, or it may be opened by any image processing software after downloading from web mail.

This is a useful technique for information which does not need to be, or should not be, processed by a computer. It takes a human to understand it. With practice one can produce images which can be dropped into Word documents instead of text. I have had it done with my Order Form and was at first very puzzled by my inability to edit the text, which looked perfectly normal.