Files
remove-ai-watermarks/docs/supported-signals.md
T
Victor KuznetsovandClaude Opus 5 13095fb45c Verify every doc claim against the source and fix what drifted
Every code-referencing claim in the docs, the README and the rules files was
checked against src/, and each finding was re-derived independently before it
was applied. 35 held, 5 were false positives.

Two of them were code, not text. `InvisibleOptions` promises in its docstring to
mirror `InvisibleEngine`, and two defaults had silently stopped:
`max_resolution=None` reached `_target_size`'s `max_resolution > 0` and raised
`TypeError` on every library call that left the options alone, and
`cpu_offload=True` made a library run slower than the identical CLI run. Both are
fixed, and `TestInvisibleOptionsMirrorTheEngine` compares the two signatures
field by field rather than pinning the two values that happen to be known. A
companion assertion in `TestTargetSize` reads the engine's own declared default,
so a drift on the engine side -- which the mirror check alone would accept,
because both sides would still agree -- fails too.

The user-facing docs: README called `invisible` GPU-optional where it raises
without CUDA, and gave the image `metadata` command `video metadata`'s output
rule, promising the source survives a command that overwrites it. Yuanbao was
missing from the supported-mark list. `veo` was listed among the video policies
that require a run anchor, though its row sets no `anchor_iou`.
`known-limitations` called ControlNet the default profile and contradicted
itself ninety lines below. An unescaped pipe truncated the `hailuo` table row.
The `dev` extra, the CI shape, ffmpeg's role, the sdist boundary and the
strength-curve range were corrected, and `remove_all`/`remove_batch`, the pill
gate, `erase --keep-metadata` and `all`'s CUDA failure mode were documented.

Research notes that described removed modules, extras and flags in the present
tense now say so once in the page banner instead of sentence by sentence, which
covers the whole page rather than the lines that happened to be noticed, and one
fixture is referred to by role rather than by name.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-04 11:38:04 -07:00

8.8 KiB

Supported signals

This page describes the current support boundary. A check mark means that the repository contains a corresponding code path. It does not guarantee detection or removal on every future vendor version.

Visible marks

The visible command registers these mark keys:

Key Mark Expected area Important limit
gemini Google Gemini sparkle Usually bottom right Detection includes a false positive gate.
doubao 豆包AI生成 Bottom right Vendor specific text detector.
jimeng ★ 即梦AI Bottom right Vendor specific text detector.
qwen 千问AI生成 Bottom right Strict visual gate.
kling 可灵AI 3.0 Bottom right Only calibrated variants are covered.
yuanbao 元宝 over AI生成 Bottom right Standard two-line variant only.
samsung ✦ Contenuti generati dall'AI Bottom left Calibrated for the Italian text variant.
runninghub RunningHub AI生成 Top left Strict visual and position gates.
baidu 百度 AI生成 Bottom right Detector and extended removal footprint.
liblib LibLibAI Bottom center Includes a minimum image size gate.
jimeng_pill AI生成 pill Top left Weak detector with additional product and background gates.

--mark auto evaluates all registered marks and removes every selected match. Known marks are localized to a mask, then the selected fill backend reconstructs the masked area.

Marks from other vendors are not detected automatically. Use erase --region when you can select the affected area yourself.

Visible video marks

Key Mark Motion Important limit
sora Sora 2 mascot and wordmark Moves among frame positions Requires a temporally recurring visual match; the older Sora Turbo corner swirl is a different unsupported mark.
veo Current four-point diamond and legacy Veo text Fixed bottom-right corner Uses separate silhouettes and requires a recurring match; learned fill is preferable on structured backgrounds.
seedance Boxed AI label Fixed bottom-right corner Requires an anchored recurring match; the full localized box is filled because a thinner synthetic shape mask leaves the real translucent rim behind.
dola Dola AI text Fixed bottom-right corner Requires an anchored recurring match; ByteDance or BytePlus provenance can relax only an existing visual run.
hailuo MINIMAX | hailuo AI composite label Fixed lower edge Uses a synthetic waveform, text, separator, and ring silhouette; the complete recurring label box is filled.
kling Kling swirl, KLING AI, version, and optional PRO suffix Fixed bottom-right edge Combines a synthetic logo rescue with font variants, an edge gate, a white-label gate, and anchored temporal recurrence.

video identify, video visible, and video all share this registry and the same temporal arbiter. It is separate from the image registry because selection is made over a sequence rather than one raster. The default auto mode scans all six entries in one decode pass and selects the first temporally stable match in table order; an explicit mark restricts the scan to that row. Accepted fills are motion-aligned across adjacent frames by default. The prior fill contributes only where its warped mask covers the current removal mask and nearby source context agrees. Scene cuts or disjoint marks retain the independent frame fill.

Fill backends

Backend Install Behavior
cv2 remove-ai-watermarks[visible] Classical OpenCV inpainting
migan remove-ai-watermarks[migan] MI-GAN through ONNX Runtime; practical learned CPU video tier
lama remove-ai-watermarks[lama] big-LaMa through ONNX Runtime; offline video quality tier
auto Depends on installed extras Selects LaMa, then MI-GAN, then OpenCV

The learned backends download model files on first use.

Metadata and provenance

The inspection and stripping code handles signals in these groups:

  • C2PA Content Credentials and supported cloud manifest references;
  • EXIF and XMP generator fields;
  • IPTC AI disclosure fields;
  • PNG text chunks and embedded generation parameters;
  • China TC260 AIGC labels in supported image placements and the normative MP4/MOV moov.udta.meta.keys/ilst, MKV/WebM Segment.Tags.Tag.SimpleTag, AVI LIST/INFO/AIGC, and FLV script.onMetaData.AIGC placements;
  • xAI and Grok EXIF signature fields;
  • Samsung AI editing markers;
  • Hugging Face job metadata;
  • open Stable Diffusion style DWT-DCT watermarks with the detect extra;
  • Adobe TrustMark with the trustmark extra.

identify combines detected signals into a ProvenanceReport. It reports unknown when evidence is absent. It never treats missing metadata as proof that an image is human made.

File and container formats

Pixel based image commands discover these extensions:

  • PNG;
  • JPEG;
  • WebP;
  • HEIC and HEIF;
  • AVIF.

HEIC, HEIF, and AVIF pixel decoding requires the independent heif extra in addition to the selected pixel feature. Metadata scanning does not.

Metadata inspection and removal additionally have container paths for:

  • JPEG XL metadata;
  • MP4, MOV, M4V, and M4A;
  • WebM, MKV, MKA, AVI, FLV, MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, OGA, Opus, and AAC when ffmpeg is available.

JPEG image metadata stripping removes targeted metadata segments without re-encoding the entropy coded image scan. PNG and WebP removal preserves pixel values through lossless output paths. HEIC, HEIF, AVIF, and other containers use their format specific paths.

Invisible watermarks

The invisible command uses diffusion regeneration. It targets watermark patterns by changing the image rather than decoding and deleting a known payload.

Current pipeline values, both CUDA-only:

  • qwen-zimage, the default;
  • sdxl-zimage, the same recipe and the same face stage on an SDXL global pass.

The controlnet, sdxl, qwen and default values were removed. A retired name is rejected at parse time rather than remapped onto a surviving profile.

SynthID does not have a public local pixel decoder in this project. The tool can infer likely presence from supported provenance metadata, but after that metadata is removed a local negative result is inconclusive.

For MP4, MOV, and M4V, video invisible or the explicit video all --invisible option can regenerate the video through a VAE and strip source metadata. The shipped profile is oracle-certified, but it is not a local decoder. A fresh source-positive, output-negative pair from Gemini's built-in SynthID verifier is an optional per-file audit. A normal Gemini answer may instead infer from a visible logo or metadata; asking it to reinterpret a completed verifier result is not a second oracle run.

The optional detect extra is different: it provides a local decoder for the open DWT-DCT watermark used by some Stable Diffusion, SDXL, and FLUX workflows. That signal is carrier and transformation sensitive, so a negative is still not a universal clean verdict.

Provider overview

Provider or family Visible Invisible path Metadata or provenance
Google Gemini Sparkle Diffusion regeneration for SynthID C2PA and related source signals
Google Veo video Veo diamond and legacy text Oracle-certified VAE removal for SynthID C2PA and related source signals
OpenAI image generators None registered Diffusion regeneration for supported invisible signals C2PA and generator provenance
Stable Diffusion and SDXL None registered Diffusion regeneration; optional open decoder Embedded parameters and text metadata
FLUX None registered Diffusion regeneration; optional open decoder C2PA for supported sources
Adobe Firefly None registered No proprietary local decoder C2PA; optional TrustMark decoder
Midjourney None registered No registered pixel decoder EXIF, XMP, and IPTC signals
ByteDance generators Doubao and Jimeng marks No registered pixel decoder TC260 AIGC and supported C2PA signals
Qwen Qwen mark No registered pixel decoder TC260 AIGC
Kling Kling image and video marks No registered pixel decoder TC260 AIGC
Hailuo / MiniMax video Hailuo composite video label No registered pixel decoder TC260 AIGC where present
Baidu Baidu mark No registered pixel decoder TC260 AIGC
LibLibAI LibLibAI mark No registered pixel decoder TC260 AIGC
RunningHub RunningHub mark No registered pixel decoder TC260 AIGC
Samsung Galaxy AI One locale specific mark No registered pixel decoder C2PA and Samsung markers

For detector thresholds, measured limits, and incident history, see module internals and known limitations.