> Rhetoric > Image and Non-Textual Argument > arghXiv:2606.14318
Legibility of Numerical Values in Serially Re-Captured Images
Abstract: An image posted as evidence is commonly re-captured rather than forwarded: the recipient photographs or screenshots the display rather than saving the file. Each capture is a generation, and each loses resolution. We identified 143 chains in which the same underlying document was circulated through at least five generations, and scored at each generation the legibility of the numerical value the image had been posted to establish. Legibility was retained in every first- and second-generation capture, in 71 per cent of third-generation captures, and in 12 of the 143 by the fifth. Beyond the fifth generation no chain in the sample retained a readable value. Circulation did not slow: images in which the value could no longer be read were posted in support of that value at the same rate as images in which it could.