all 118 comments

[–]Useless_Advice_Guy 56 points57 points  (10 children)

Just another thing that gets loaded when Photoshop starts. ಠ_ಠ

[–]Spit-wad 28 points29 points  (9 children)

I'm at the point where I can probably name the first 50 people listed in the credits.

[–]mickey9theforceboy 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Sataharnarnarnan Naryamaymanan?

[–]hypercaffeinated 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well played. I didn't really read that, but I googled it to see if it was real.

[–]featheredtar 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Use an SSD! It slices PS's startup time.

[–]specteksthrowaway 9 points10 points  (1 child)

I would, but I just can't bring myself to stand up out of my solid gold throne.

[–]Useless_Advice_Guy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can google and disable a lot of these hidden plugins.

[–]Krogg 21 points22 points  (4 children)

I work at HP, in the imaging group. We test on hardware, and my team specifically, tests high end laser jet printers. We have to test scanner firmware to make sure that if a bill is scanned, the printer prints out a page that is a warning much the same. I got into trouble for using my own bill when trying this test out for the first time. HP even has, under lock and key, templates to be used for the test. If we are caught using actual bills HP gets in huge trouble. Not to mention our jobs. We have to use the specially designed, government minted and issued templates.


Surely that's a terrible flaw in the system, leaving it vulnerable to undocumented differences between the templates and actual notes.

[–]Krogg 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well, the templates look nothing like an actual bill. They have the same makeup as a bill. Think of it as blank notes. There's no picture of a president, no value marked, but it is still the paper that is used to print on.

[–]irve 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I have always been intrigued how can these things detect even small pieces of banknotes. I know about the euro constellation, but for partial matches there must be some other clever algorithm. My educated guess would be that it somehow uses some colour-histogram fingerprints, but there's probably more to it.

[–]Krogg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know the exact science, but since our template is basically a blank dollar bill, I think it has to do with the security features of the note itself. My guess is the scanner only needs to identify the security features like the watermark, hologram, etc. and prints out the security warning. If the bill is fake, there is no worry, right?

[–]Ares__ 19 points20 points  (5 children)

I use photoshop for most my photo editing because I'm just so used to it and it is an awesome program. For this however, you could use GIMP.

[–]BaconChapstick 12 points13 points  (3 children)

GIMP is really great. People always say PS is better. It is, but not in all aspects. Just the other day someone said PS was better because it had content aware fill, something that has been in GIMP for about a year.

[–]benjick 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Try more years :)

GIMP Resynthesizer Plugin Suite

Copyright 2000 2008  Paul Francis Harrison
Copyright 2002  Laurent Despeyroux
Copyright 2002  David Rodríguez García
Copyright 2010-2011  Lloyd Konneker <bootch@nc.rr.com>

[–]Ares__ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh I agree that I can do just about anything I can do in Photoshop in GIMP, and I try to use it as often as I can. However, I'm much more proficient with Photoshop so I tend to use it more.

[–]disposable_me_0001 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having used both, the Content Aware Fill in PS is superior.

[–]pinumbernumber 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I use Paint.NET. Does most things the GIMP can do (after installing a bunch of extensions, anyway), it's faster, and its UI is much better.

[–]TED_666 50 points51 points  (10 children)

If you try to print a banknote on most (post 2008-ish) printers it will print the first inch of the image then www.rulesforuse.org.

[–]ForgottenPhoenix 29 points30 points  (0 children)

That is epic trolling at its finest.

[–]preludeoflight 10 points11 points  (7 children)

I want to see this happen.

[–]kingbot -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

LOL, so much win

[–]FilterOutBullshit3 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Everyone knows counterfeiters use GIMP.


Do they run their gimps on Lunix? Because that's the illegal software the hackers use.


Is this legit? How does it know?

Also, have you considered cutting the picture of the note in half in some other app first?


Even more importantly what happens when your doing a design that has bills on it?

http://fivebelow.com/ - they use designs that incorporate the image of a US bill.

[–]whiskeytab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it describes the rules ... on rulesforuse.org

[–]i-hate-digg 3 points4 points  (0 children)


This is what 'free software' actually means, btw.

[–]esssssss[🍰] 7 points8 points  (4 children)

one time when I was like 9 or 10 I tried to fool a vending machine with a piece of paper in the shape of money. It was more of an experiment. How does the thing know it's money!?

[–]ApteryxAustralis 9 points10 points  (3 children)

On the backside of a $20, there are patterns that are recognized by copiers, programs, etc. Various other currencies also have this feature.

EURion Constellation

EDIT: It appears that someone has beaten me down below. beat me to posting this.


so you got whacked in the nuts?

[–]deadpear 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Interesting - could I add that same pattern to any document and render it near unscannable? Or make a document page unprintable?

I might try this for epic trolling.

[–]ApteryxAustralis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know, but it would definitely be worth a try.

[–]Beaverman 4 points5 points  (3 children)

I had the same "error" i patched my photoshop to remove it, it worked... but then i printed it and the damn HP printer did the same thing -.-

[–]butter14 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I have heard of photoshop doing this but not printers. I guess I TILed in a TIL I already knew about.

[–]OmegaVesko 0 points1 point  (0 children)

IIRC all HP printers do this. I imagine 90% of modern printers do.

[–]ForgottenPhoenix -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Can the printed copy and post it here? You know, for science.

[–]Basecamp88 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Real counterfeiters scan the bill in ultra-high res sections, then combine them later.

[–]zach_man 4 points5 points  (0 children)


[–]not_me_man 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I tried this years ago when I first heard about it. Photoshop had no problem importing the image from the scanner. I've tried it on various versions since without issue.

[–]peter-pickle 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Since 2002 you can't edit photos of Dick Cheney either.

[–]crackduck 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as I know Dick Cheney's house and property is still blurred out on all satellite imagery publicly available.

[–]DarcyHart 1 point2 points  (1 child)

There is a crack somewhere to bypass this.

[–]OmegaVesko 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah, its called GIMP.


Why does Adobe do this? Does some government mandate it?

[–]broo20 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I was able to scan one in.

Unfortunately my country's note has a transparent bit, and is made of plastic.

[–]djantigravity 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Where are you from? Just out of curiosity

[–]broo20 1 point2 points  (0 children)


[–]NeonMan 1 point2 points  (0 children)


Relevant: Eurion.

[–]sheikhyerbouti 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I worked for Adobe when they implemented this.

You wouldn't believe how many people threatened to sue us because they couldn't scan a $20 bill.

[–]slacker0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know how the recognition technique works? I would think that it would be fairly processor intensive. You'd have to detect different denominations, front and back, different orientations and scales.

[–]cheechw 1 point2 points  (3 children)

This is why

It's to prevent people from counterfeiting currency.

[–]StJude1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This right here.

Once you've seen it you can never un-see it...


Read the article. Photoshop doesn't use that technology, it uses a digimarc.

[–]cheechw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did read it a long time ago. I must have forgotten that part. All I knew was that it explained it in this article :P. Point still gets across.

[–]snokyguy 1 point2 points  (1 child)

TIL why MSPaint > Photoshop.


For that one scenario you will never come across in your life time and if you do can be removed with a patch?

[–]bbrosen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Scanners do the same, newer ones anyway.

[–]peter-pickle 0 points1 point  (1 child)

v9 lets you edit but not print. I'd love to hear the algorithm described for detecting this.



[–]LegateLanius 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's weird, last year I took a basic Photoshop class, and we had to do a project with currency and nobody had a problem. We were using CS3, if that makes a difference.

[–]Balance686 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reminds me of the movie Fakers

[–]super3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PS6? Are you from the future?


I made an album cover after scanning a one dollar bill?

[–]carlosmal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have used Photoshop to edit images of Mexican Pesos countless times.

[–]Detka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you can't photocopy them either.

[–]noamknows 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have got a really great Epson v750 scanner,one of my friends for a laugh tried to scan a banknote, it would'nt scan. Tough luck Frank


Your copier will probably print out all in black. Had this problem with non-currency document until figured out that the copier was mistakenly identifying it as currency.

[–]fardin89 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is because you are using CS5 , use older versions,....

[–]themacmeister 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Use Australian bank notes -- you might even end up ahead :)

PS. Worked for me with PS6 on Mac.

[–]broo20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No you can't, A. Because they're plastic, and B. Because they have a transparent unprintable thing.

[–]domeshots -1 points0 points  (2 children)

whats stopping them from outlawing boob like and phallic like objects being scanned

[–]chris-martin 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Uh... Nothing? But why would they?

[–]thesehands 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mormon Photoshop obviously. Automation of the bubbling process.

[–]abus11351 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I just tried in CS4 and CS5 with no issue.