Give me photshop cs, and give me some money, and I'll test it all out for you.

It's been tested, on TechTV as a matter o fact. It doesn't allow it.

What does the program look for to detect that the picture is actually money? How far does this detection go, and can it interfere with people who design things that resemble these markers?

Also, what about working with stock photography which includes images of currency?

Here's a news item from Friday. Adobe officially admits that they added 'secretive' technology to Photoshop at the request of government regulators and international bankers.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/040109/copying_dollars_3.html

This is hardcore. With the current massive Orwellization of the United States, it's very very eerie to have one of the major software companies pulling such a stunt. This does not bode well for the future...

It doesn't work with Euro bills either, I've read.

It would seem that the government is trying to close the barn door after the horse has bolted.

If any one was serious about copying they would just obtain a pre Photoshop CS version.

I wonder if my pre Photoshop CS versions will appreciate in value.

gln

Actually you can open a scan of currency, in PS CS as long as the dimensions conform to:

http://www.treas.gov/usss/money_illustrations.shtml

I scanned a US 20 at 400 percent and it opened in CS no problem

How does it handle currency at size with the word "sample" printed across it?

I posted this on another forum and my god...they're all calling me paranoid for being pissed off at this restriction and everything.

I mean, today it's images of money, tomorrow it's images of weapons, or nude pictures, or anything with any type of copyright in it...

I can't help it if I value my rights as a consumer and citizen of the formerly free USA.

Hahaha, as they can stop me making fake money.

This is actually not so exotic if you think about it. Every image has a histogram. I suspect they feed in a set of functions that approximate various currency histograms (and you can do these in RGB, LAB, CMYK or who knows how many models) and if the approximations fit closely enough, Photoshop won't let you do it.

There would have to be other factors as well to keep someone from putting a big lump of color next to the bill to throw off its historgram. Fascinating stuff!

The easy way around this is open source software like the GIMP. The scary thing is requiring these tests to be done at the hardware level. I'd be surprised if the latest scanners from the leading brands didn't all have similar routines in their hardware. Once that happens, your problem is getting the image into the program.

Then there are the printers. I'd bet they're targeting those as well. Especially the cheap disposable CrapJet printers where all the RIPping is done in the OS printer driver.

Perhaps a clever dumpster diver could salvage one of the unprotected models before they all go Big Brother.

It would also have been interesting if Adobe had only protected US currency and not the Euro. That way they could (literally!) manipulate the world currency market. Counterfeit Euros would be very healthy for the US economy right now. :-/

It's not really the fact that Photoshop won't let you open pictures of banknotes that gets to me, it's the fact that Adobe never mentioned this (and from what I know, they still haven't).

Even so, if I recall correctly, the US laws say you can use images of banknotes provided they are either 50% or 150% the actual size... so what if I need to open a picture of a $100 bill to shrink it down to the desired (and legal) size?
It won't stop counterfeiters either, as they will simply go back to Photoshop 7 or some other image manipulation program.

Adriano, Adobe fessed up about it after someone found out about the limitation.

It was put there at the request (ie, force) of the Government.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040110/D8006CL00.html

Still, why isn't there a note in the user manual or help file, saying that currency can only be scanned at such and such settings...

If you're wondering how this works, Photoshop CS looks for the "EURion Constellation" hidden in modern currency from Canada, Europe, Britain, Germany, the US and elsewhere. No fancy histogram checks, no image content recognition. Just a simple pattern detection algorithm.

New versions of JASC Paint Shop Pro and Ulead PhotoImpact also contain this currency detection algorithm. A current proposal will require this of all image editing software.

There are ways around the system. Opening it in Photoshop 7, hiding the layer and then re-opening it in Photoshop CS works. Or you can scale the image larger than 150% or smaller than 75%. The Treasury Board also said they will give out electronic versions which do not contain the protective pattern if you ask nicely.

I'm curious to see the result of adding this pattern to an original artwork. Will it still open in Photoshop CS? Does Photoshop look for more than just the EURion Constellation when determining what is a bank note?

This comes as no surprise.

kris

Where is this thing in the new US 20 dollar bill? I've never noticed a pattern of circles on it before.

The really scary thing about this is that there are people living off tax-payers money who can't find something less moronic to do with themselves, or something less pointless to do with their budgets.