Image Quality

If the text is small, only 1 bit of color components will be required to embed the text into an image. This means the image will visually stay intact.

However, encrypting large texts may require substituting 2 or more bits. Substituting more than 3 bits will cause image changes that are recognizable for human eye, stains may appear or the sharpness may decrease.

As many as 6 or 7 bits substituted will result in so much noise that the image will only retain general outlines of objects depicted. If the encryption will require 8 bits, one should note that the image will become a meaningless set of colors and the loss of recognition will be close to 100%. Encrypting into an image with 256 color palette will cause substantial changes even with 1 bit of color components substituted.