How to Convert Garbled Text Back to an Image File?

Question

I'm not a coder and I've been using ChatGPT to try to figure this out, so apologies if I misuse any terms. I have a string of text that I suspect is from an image file, given that it starts with "âPNG", indicating it might be related to an image format like APNG. However, the rest of the text seems garbled and I'm unable to convert it back to an image. Here's a snippet of the beginning of the text:

âPNG

IHDRL!ï5ƒ#iCCPICC ProfileXÖïyXUÕ∑˛ÏΩOqËC7HÉtÉt7“•pËéC∑Å®ÄÄ(≠ÄàÖR")ÇàäÅ¢à¢b“¢‹M˘ªfl˝?ˇ˚‹yûŸ˚eÕö5ÔÃZ3≥.vrDDÃ@hX4≈÷XèflŸ≈ï? Ä$†≤wTÑÆçç@Àü˜/ÀOQm¥<ñZ∑ı?€ˇøÖ—«7 »≈^>Qfi°(n√ÈAâ;Ñ „¢#÷Ò"äô)(ApÑuÏøâπ◊±◊&ñ›–±∑’G±2ô‚›∫}˛Xo‘]⁄F CU”Q¨Â@ˆÄÛ™≥=44|œ¢XÃÎ?ϯˇ7õ^mí…˛ÒÊ\6 0*"Ñú\éˇΩÑ܃¸cZi(&∂ÎsF◊Ì|p∏˘:¶Aq[òóï5äI(ÓÙŸ–_«/bL∂Ù?yGÈ£kXÄÅŸ¿≈ËZ¬¨1¡∫[XûLŸËãÍ√VÅ—¶ˆ[ÿãnªeé ±≤ÿ≤s(¿◊Ù.˜ç2¥˚£„hdäb4“‡Üƒ{ßMû≠ÿ@G+”°x(*ÿŒ|´Ô´ƒ}´?:î€uŒB(^Ù£ŸnÍ Ï°QÊÖH{ì7∆bG±NtÄΩ…f_ƒŸ7 Ÿ‚_√Màèoò√7ç.=€≠æ!6[˙Hπoà±ÌÊ:#ó£bÌ˛Ù}çÿÊ: ìAd3õM˛»rD¥ç˝&7X}¯AZΩ@8Ř?5}Bˇ⁄l1d@˛¿HmI˛Ùp⁄h Cüv |Fë/à˙€Oo£’ƒ¢Ú_•õO)‡∑—ª—#ºEq(Ü£Ö—¿X†O¥ cT1j˙Ò”ˇgà3¿ô‡åp‚yx£¨C–JÅˇô9˙ˆEg∑Œ%Ïœ˛±á}ã}àùƒc«±œÅ#x≥aeKÀ#pÂ_Ã˘Å%G≠mÕŒµ9ÛG#Ç≤V¬Ëa4Q˛(w+ÜHa—ôËb¥—π)°“ˇdÛó€?k˘ÔÒ÷YˇÁ|∂‰ttJ[,º˛zFˇØ÷ø≠ˡ«˘†oÛk"áêkH“Ö‹A⁄ê&¿èt Õ» rsˇçÑ7ëg4€ n¡®ù¿?:≤egdWˇ«Ë‰-î Éhfl¯Ëı °ë@ ÙàÊ◊EOd_~”0oÈ̸Ú≤r¨üÔõ««ÇÌ∆π ±>¯GFF„Zï‚ ?≤ÍW–„mˇ?2·∞ÕpÓ≤w%vSÜY–£;ÉA ÜŒI(£˜à0f¿ÿ∞]ıä≤é…/»Y ÄRPNÉÛ‡∏ ö@Ë∑¡]0Ü¡(”‡#òÀ‡'AxàbÇ8 >Híщ!UH2Ñ, [»ÚѸ°0(J܈CYP>T ùÇ.@W†®∫=ÑûC–4≠¿L3√<∞,´¬∫∞9lÔÇ˝·H8Nás‡b∏ ÆÖ·.¯.<è√·% ‘+"ÄH!™à>bç∏"~IE2ëB§ ©CZQ_?F∆ëO»√Ñ·«H°ÒiÇq¿xc"1©òlL)Ê<¶sÛ3Åô≈¸∆“bπ±íXu¨)÷Îèç√f±g±◊±ΩËfiô∆.„p8Vú(N›õ.∏ \.wWè΃=ƒM·ñx<^Øâ∑∆ìÒ—¯| æflÅÑü∆'P¯Ú#Ç+!å∞èPH®!¥fi~R1P S©SYS˘P%PÂRUSµR=†ö¶˙Id$ä5∃ ‚^b1±éÿK|I\†¶¶fiF≠FΩì:êzu1ıeÍ~Í Í4$ }wööös4ù4œihiiEhuh]i£ish/–ˆ–æ¢˝N«D'MgJÁCóFWF◊H˜àÓ=Ω0Ω.˝n˙D˙B˙kÙË?1P1à0Ë3êR Zû1,121 1Z3Ü2f3÷0fia|O¬ìDHÜ$R:È4©á4≈Ñ0 2È3y3Ìg™fÍeöf∆1ã2õ21g1_bæœ<ÀBbQdqdâg)cπ…2Œä∞ä∞ö≤Ü∞Ê≤^e} ∫¬∆√¶ÀÊÀvò≠éÌ€7v.vv_ˆLˆzˆaˆ~Céé£McúN ŒùúqúÂúΩúü∏òπ4∏ºπ2πÆrΩ‡Üπ%∏mπì∏Osr/ÒÚÛDîÙ|‚eÂ’· ‚=Œ€Œ;√«ƒß≈»wúØÉÔ?ø.1ˇ-˛YnÅÅS˜~n›Ê∞mfl∂˙mcÇDAUA?¡„Ç›Ç≥B|BñB…BÖ^S ´ ˜

I'm looking for a way to convert this text back to an image. The text does not appear to be Base64 encoded, as it contains characters outside the Base64 index table. I attempted to copy and paste it into various text-to-image tools, but they all indicate it isn't in a proper format.

What I've tried:

Pasting the text into Base64-to-image converters (no success) Opening the text in a text editor and saving it with an APNG extension (resulting file is not recognized as an image)

What I expected: To find a method or tool that can interpret this garbled text and convert it back into an image file.

My question: Can anyone suggest a process or tool that might be able to convert this text back into a readable image? Or provide steps on how to decode or repair this data?

edit: Here's a screenshot of the data in HexEd.it

Answer 1

Looking at the hex output you posted, this used to be a PNG file, but it has been irretrievably corrupted by an attempt to display it as UTF-8 text, and then saving that output back as a file using copy and paste or somesuch.

You cannot convert a binary file to text in this way, and then in any way reconstruct the original binary file. Not all binary sequences are valid UTF-8, and so invalid portions are converted to some error character, often a white question mark in a black diamond. Though in your example, perhaps it's the apples. In any case, that is a lossy conversion, with the original bytes interpreted as invalid UTF-8 forever lost.

You say that this image was embedded in the "source code" of a website. If we presume that that embedded data is useful, then it is the actual binary in the source code. If you can download the file as binary, and then extract just those bytes without altering them, then you should be able to retrieve the PNG image. You would read the file in a program as binary bytes, and then write out only the bytes of interest.