TO-DO

• take input for files as command line arguments
• merge both encoder and decoder to one file and prompt user for their choice of actions
• using a single color for a character might be easier to decode. so for every sentence try to rotate color of the character to the next column color and try to cycle among them further on

Pixosteg

Pixosteg is a steganography tool designed to conceal text within images in a way that is not noticeable at a glance. It operates by mapping each character of the input text to a unique color, which is then used to generate a single-row PNG image where each pixel represents a character from the text. This method allows for the encoding of messages in a visual format, effectively hiding the text in plain sight.

How Pixosteg Works

1. Encoding Process:

   • The user provides the text they wish to encode and the path to a CSV file containing color mappings for each character.
   • The tool reads the color mappings from the CSV file, associating each character with a specific color.
   • For each character in the input text, Pixosteg finds the corresponding color in the mappings and creates a pixel of that color.
   • These colored pixels are arranged in a single row to form an image, which is then saved as a PNG file. This file visually represents the encoded text.

2. Decoding Process:

   • To decode, the user provides the PNG image created during the encoding process and the same CSV file used for encoding.
   • Pixosteg reads the image, extracting the color of each pixel in the single-row image.
   • It then matches each pixel's color to the character mappings defined in the CSV file, effectively reversing the encoding process.
   • By mapping each color back to its corresponding character, Pixosteg reconstructs the original text from the image.

Example

To encode text use encode.py

Here i have provided the text Hello world. and the following csv (colors/colors.csv) to the encoding script:

This is the image we obtained

Now to decode, lets use decode.py

Success! we obtained our original message!