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How to export and share an image analysis report

Three formats, three audiences. What goes in a client PDF, what belongs in a case file, and how to share a result without sharing the picture.

· 7 min read · Best AI Image Detector

PDF for a person, JSON for a system, a share link for a conversation. The link carries the analysis inside the URL, so the image itself is never sent anywhere.

Three formats and who each is for

Pick by audience rather than by habit
FormatForContains
PDF reportA client, a manager, a claim fileScore, band, scale, region map, signals, limitations
JSON exportA case system, a spreadsheet, an archiveEvery tile score, file details, provenance state, timestamp
Share linkA colleague, a counterparty, a conversationThe analysis only. No image travels
Copy summaryA message or a ticket noteVerdict, score, band, decision line, in plain text

The common mistake is sending a screenshot of the result screen. It carries none of the tile values, cannot be searched, and looks like an opinion rather than a record.

The PDF report

Built for somebody who was not there when the check ran. It opens with the file name and the time, then the score and its band, then the scale showing where that score sits, then the region map, then the signals behind the verdict.

It closes with the limitations, and that section is not optional decoration. A report that travels to a client or a counterparty needs to carry its own caveats, because the person reading it will not visit a website to find them.

The image and its heatmap are flattened into a single picture before printing. Browsers default to leaving background graphics out of a print, which would silently drop a CSS overlay and produce a report showing the photograph with no map on it.

A shareable result normally means uploading something. That would undo the point of a tool that never sends your file anywhere, so the link works differently.

The whole analysis is compressed into the URL fragment, the part after the hash. Browsers never transmit a fragment to a server, so a shared link discloses nothing to us, to a CDN or to any access log. Opening it rebuilds the report in the recipient's browser from the link itself.

Carried in the link

  • Score, band and verdict
  • The decision line
  • Every region tile value
  • The file name and check time
  • Content Credentials state

Never carried

  • The image itself
  • A thumbnail of it
  • Anything identifying you
  • Anything stored on a server
What travels in a share link. The picture is not in the list, which is the point.

A full report with an eight-tile region map comes to roughly four hundred characters, which pastes into any chat window. The recipient sees the reasoning without ever receiving the picture, which is often exactly the right split.

What to record in a case file

  1. Save the original file, untouched

    Not a screenshot and not a re-export. The file you checked is the evidence; the report describes it.

  2. Export the JSON

    Every tile score, the grid dimensions, the provenance state and a timestamp. This is what lets somebody reconstruct the reading later without the original tool.

  3. Export the PDF too

    For anybody who will read rather than parse. Two formats cost nothing and serve different readers.

  4. Note what you did, not what you concluded

    Which file, when, what the result was, and what you did next. A conclusion recorded without its inputs is not reviewable.

  5. Keep it under the same retention as the case

    Do not build a separate register of scores against named people, which turns a review step into profiling.

Sharing with somebody who will disagree

When a result is going to a claimant, a supplier or a student, the framing matters as much as the file. Send the report rather than the verdict, and say what you are asking for rather than what you concluded.

A message saying our check flagged this image and we would like the original file from the device is answerable. One saying our system determined this image is AI-generated invites a fight over a number that cannot support the weight being put on it.

What not to put in a report

The exports are deliberately narrow, and a few things people ask for are absent on purpose rather than because nobody got to them.

There is no verdict field saying fake or genuine. A band and a score communicate a likelihood; a single word communicates certainty that the underlying measurement cannot support, and once a word like that is in a document it travels further than the caveats around it.

There is no confidence percentage separate from the score. Two numbers invite a reader to multiply them, and there is no meaningful second figure to give. The score is the confidence.

There is no signature or certification mark on the PDF. A report that looks certified would be doing exactly the thing the limitations section says not to do, and a document that contradicts itself will be read selectively by whoever benefits from the half they prefer.

Questions people ask

Does a share link upload my image?
No. The analysis is compressed into the fragment of the URL, which browsers never send to a server. The picture stays on your device. Anyone opening the link sees the score, the bands and the region values rebuilt in their own browser from the link text.
How long does a share link last?
Indefinitely, because nothing is stored. There is no record to expire and no server to go down. The link works as long as the page exists, and it will still render the same report years from now.
Can I put my company branding on a report?
Not yet. Branded reports are on the list of things a paid tier would cover, and nothing about the current export is behind a paywall. The PDF carries the tool name and the domain in the letterhead.
Which format should go in a claim or case file?
Both PDF and JSON. The PDF is what a reviewer reads; the JSON is what a system can search and what lets somebody reconstruct the exact reading later. Storing only a screenshot of the screen is the option that causes problems eighteen months on.
Can I export a whole batch at once?
Yes. The batch view exports a summary PDF listing every image with its score and verdict, and a combined JSON containing the full result for each. That is usually the right artefact for a claim with twenty photographs attached.
Should I include the limitations text when I forward a report?
Always, and it is included automatically for that reason. A report travelling without its caveats is how a likelihood turns into a finding somewhere down the chain, usually in front of somebody who never saw the original context.