[Tex/LaTex] Putting an image in Author footnote

Question

I want to protect my email address from automatic web crawlers.
Is there a way to put an image of an email address instead of typed one in the author field and use it for \maketitle?

I want the following format, so that the email (and affiliation) is in the footnote:

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\title{Titulo}
\author{Socrates\thanks{Email picture file here: }}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\end{document}

The following throws an error:

\author{Socrates\thanks{Email: \includegraphics{email.png}}
\maketitle

Thanks to the pointer by egreg, \protect addresses the issue:

\author{Socrates\thanks{Email: \protect \includegraphics{email.png}}
\maketitle

Thanks in advance.

UPD: Edited to add the screenshot.

UPD2: Added solution I was looking for.

Answer 1

The command \includegraphics is fragile, so you have to \protect it in footnotes.

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\title{Titulo}
\author{Socrates\thanks{Email:
  \protect\includegraphics[
    width=4cm, % just for the example
    height=\ht\strutbox]{example-image}}%
}

\textheight=8cm % just for the example

\begin{document}

\maketitle


\end{document}