Is the seal bassackwards?

This one is courtesy of MissTickly from the Obama`s Garden blog and her article, The Audacity of Seal. I don`t know why birthers have to cast on and on to create a mere point, but let me keep you having to penetrate the page down button 28 times and say you what her article says (my words):

The caption ("State of Hawaii - Department of Health") on a birth certificate`s embossed seal, when viewed from the raised (embossed) side, should read normally, but on Obama`s it is a mirror image.

OK, did everybody understand that? The remainder of the Obama`s Garden article, and particularly stories of threats against their children, doesn`t add much to my one-sentence explanation except to twist an air of scheme and to indicate that she`s come upon a bombshell error in the COLB that threatens the Obama administration to its foundations.

Part of the argument hinges on one crucial detail: which side of Obama`s Certification of Live Birth is raised. Obama`s Garden helps us name that out with the following convenient illustration:

Seal images from Obama's Garden blog

That image makes it crystal clear which is which - or does it? Here is the same image, rotated 180 degrees (turned upside down).

Preceding imaged turned upside down

What happened? The embossed and lowered portions seem to have been switched, but all I did was present the same impression from a different direction.

The shading information in images that depict surfaces of 3D objects cannot be perceived correctly unless the management of the illuminating light source is known, and, in the absence of this knowledge, adults interpret such images by assuming that brightness comes from above.

Footprints Sticking Out of the Sand (Part I): Children`s Perception of Realistic and Embossed Symbol Stimuli

Let me pay you two more examples of FactCheck image number 7, this time viewed from the side:

FactCheck photo 7 rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees

Same FactCheck Photo 7 rotated clockwise 90 degrees

Even though these are the same photo (just turned), one clearly appears raised and one clearly appears lowered. This last image appears "right" to the eye with the seal raised and the text right.

Yes, this argument is could be nothing more than an optical illusion. Obama`s elevated seal is raised on the rear side of the document (exactly as it is on other certificates) and reads correctly in concert with the registrar`s seal and the date stamp. In all fairness to Miss Tickly, this is a really compelling optical illusion, but an illusion nonetheless.

Update:

While the past proves the presence possibility of an optical illusion, I can expect an objection from somebody who supports Miss Tickly, and that is to stop to FactCheck photo # 1.

FactCheck.org birth certificate image (click to enlarge)

I can rotate this image any way I wish and it nevertheless appears embossed. I am still studying this illusion. One thing that may lead to it is the "opened window" that appears in the background which might take the eye to believe that it is the campaign of the spotlight on the paper, but I believe it more probably the limelight is caused by an overhead ceiling light. I don`t like loose ends, so I am asking for reader help in a new article: Call for birth certificates.

Here is the varnish on the De Costa certificate printed in 2002 first shown normally, and then upside down.

De Costa Certificate from 2002 rotated

De Costa seal from 2002

Here`s a picture I launch on the Internet that shows how powerful the magic can be:

The footprints on the remaining are the sami as those on the right