Today’s Question: I tried opening an image of someone spending money in Photoshop but was unable to open the image. Instead, I was met with a message that Photoshop was unable to print banknote images, directing me to a website that doesn’t seem to exist. How can I work around this limitation?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The key issue here is that there are limitations on printing copies of US currency, and Photoshop (among many other software applications, printers, and copiers) have similar limitations.
More Detail: The issue with creating images that feature US currency (with similar issues related to other currencies around the world) primarily relates to printing. Some time ago there were updates introducing restrictions in Photoshop, but you’ll find similar challenges in other software, or when trying to print or copy currency.
Interestingly enough, while Adobe Photoshop prevents you from opening images that include currency (even when, as in the case of the image shared by the photographer who posed today’s question, only a very small portion of the currency is shown), other applications such as Lightroom Classic enable you to open, edit, and print such images.
Perhaps even more interesting is that you can find numerous images of currency (including US currency) on the Adobe Stock website, including images that feature complete bills that aren’t cut off at all. But if you download one of those images, you won’t be able to open them in Photoshop. To my knowledge, there is no workaround for this issue in terms of being able to open such an image directly in Photoshop.
What I also find amusing is that from what I can find most of the restrictions on reproducing images of US currency relate specifically to printing images, not sharing them digitally. For example, when printing images of currency, that currency must appear at 75% or less of the original size or 125% or greater than the original size.
While there isn’t an easy solution for using Photoshop for such images, there are other applications that can be used. But if you’d like to learn more about some of the limitations that led to the inability to work with images of currency with the flexibility you have with other images, you can find a brief summary here:
https://www.uscurrency.gov/media/currency-image-use
