Currency of the 'Verse...

BTW, Angelus, thank you for posting those scans of the bills. The whole "free paper prop" culture going on here is awesome, and is the kind of thing the RPF is supposed to be about.

I don't entirely agree that if someone else were to make their own scans to print out and sell would be quite so evil...the trouble and skills required to clean up the scans and make the printouts are worth a little something, and folks without a scanner or the time/inclination to go to the trouble might actually prefer to buy some ready to go.

(Of course, if they were to use your scans, that indeed would be evil. )

That said, I'd like to contribute in the same "pay it forward" vein. I have made scans of a higher DPI, performed color correction, corrected the warping caused by the book and otherwise tweaked them, resulting in images of more detail. I was going to post lower rez samples but even at one percent quality they were still over 300k and thus too big to Wackychimp.

So here are details:



vs.



I have them sized to match the images in the book, 19 x 9.5 cm.

If anyone would like the uncompressed files, .tif or highest quality .jpg, PM me with your email address. The .tifs are 13.4 MB, and the .jpgs are almost 8, so you need a big pipe. I don't have enough webspace to post them online.

I inkjet printed some bills onto 24lb fine linen paper and they turned out great. Can't imagine how they'd turn out on a laser printer.

Thanks again to Angelus and everyone else in the thread, and to Wackychimp.

Treaddy, I can host them on my website for a while, if that sounds reasonable. drop me a pm and we'll work out the details.

If they don't get hosted could you email the tifs to me? john @ name-brand.net (remove the spaces of course)

I think you guys are looking at the printing process wrong - I highly doubt that they used a 4 color offset process. If I had to guess, and it has been a while since I kicked around in printing, you may want to check out a screen printing or a flexography type process, this would yeild the best color match without the dot pattern of a 4 color mix. This is deffinatley something specialized that most print shops couldn't do.

Might even be worth checking out a few sign shops, especially if they do the light box style movie posters - they would be set up for something like this.

Just my 2 cents and yes I want the currency as well...

Dave

Files are off to Matt and he'll be hosting them. Stay tuned...

While waiting for Treadwell's scans to be uploaded to Matt's site, I printed out Angelus's scans on 32 lb linen paper. Even printed out at 300dpi, they look good. The colors look a little faded (which happens to all money when used) which gives it a "used look".

Anybody else "beat it" up a bit? Crease it, fold it, wear the edges? Or is it just me that likes the "used look"?

I have some "fresh" ones and a few that I've had in my back pocket for weeks in order to weather them. They're actually more durable than I'd hoped.

Originally posted by lgtsbr@Dec 3 2005, 10:40 AM
I think you guys are looking at the printing process wrong - I highly doubt that they used a 4 color offset process.Â* If I had to guess, and it has been a while since I kicked around in printing, you may want to check out a screen printing or a flexography type process, this would yield the best color match without the dot pattern of a 4 color mix.Â* This is deffinatley something specialized that most print shops couldn't do.

Might even be worth checking out a few sign shops, especially if they do the light box style movie posters - they would be set up for something like this.

Just my 2 cents and yes I want the currency as well...

Dave

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I can't speak for screen printing, but flexographic printing tends to be more expensive than 4/C Process, and usually requires much larger print runs to offset the initial costs.

Even offset printing would probably be too expensive for the small print run that would be talking about here (as ToothTech already found out). Taking a standard 25" x 38" sheet, with the bill being 3.5" x 7", that would give you approximately 35 bills per sheet. Printing plates will run you around $75.00 per color x 4 colors would be $300.00. Make-readies on the press are about $50.00 per color, so there's another $200.00. As you can see, the costs are pretty steep before you even start the press. You then have to figure in Ink costs, roughly $6.00 per 1,000 sheets, and Press time, which would run about $25.00 per 1,000 sheets.

Since you don't really see close-ups of great piles of cash laying around, it's unlikely that an awful lot of currency was made for the show. More than likely, this stuff was either printed on a color laser printer or at a small sign shop as you suggest. Commercial printing would just be too expensive for a job this small.

Originally posted by Darkknight0667@Dec 5 2005, 11:33 AM
I can't speak for screen printing, but flexographic printing tends to be more expensive than 4/C Process, and usually requires much larger print runs to offset the initial costs.

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Oh, I completely agree - but the process itself would yield one of the best results. I was throwing it out there as a possibility. For what these are printed on, you have to think outside the standard printing box and look at the alternatives.

Screen printing might yield good results material wise, but I think the ink coverage would be too thick. I really think a sign shop is the way to go, if they have the right equipment, printing on a thin Mylar isn't overly difficult

I truly believe that 4 color process, standard offset printing was not used because of the color yield, coverage, and printing surface - but that is just my opinion and without a real piece in hand, I couldn't begin to track down the exact process used

Dave

Yeah, on TV they pretty much used the same wad of bills every time!

Only a couple of occasions where a single bill (TRAIN JOB) or a bunch of unfolded bills (WAR STORIES) are seen.

Since a lot of money was needed for the movie, it makes sense to do them on paper.

That's a nice low-cost addition to the "paper props" catagory. Those bills would look good next to items like Mal's gun.

Just wanted to bump this as I wait...

Bump sort of........Is Matt still planning to host this??

If Matt can't, I'll host them.

Anyone notice in the Visual Companion, on the page opposite the 500 bill, next to the picture of Serenity, the Alliance logo with 10,00 written on each side of it? Money wrapper?

And Angelus, could the bills be bigger than 7" x 3.5"? Maybe the pics in the Companion are 1:1 scale.

Treadwell was gracious enough to send me copies of his TIF files, so in return, I'm hosting them for everyone else to download.

Each file is roughly 13MB, right-click and "Save as" to download:

http://www.farscapeprops.com/bill1final.tif (100)

http://www.farscapeprops.com/bill2final.tif (500)

Yeah yeah, I know, they're not Farscape props, but I don't have "fireflyprops" and "serenityprops" set up yet.

I'm grateful for the bill images, but my printer prints one of the images off about an eighth of an inch when I'm trying to double side them. Is there a way to correct this, or can someone do a run of the bills (maybe 5-10) of each and work them cheap, sort of like the way the Joker cards were handled in the Free Papaer Props thread?

What program are you printing them from? There should be a way to tell the printer to print the image centered.

Warning: there will almost always be a slight misalignment when printing on both sides. Consumer printers just aren't that precise with the paper loading.

Guys! Sorry to have dropped the ball on hosting those pics! Thanks to Pilot for taking up the slack. I got sucked out of town again at the last minute, and just didn't have time to attend to the stuff.

Originally posted by Treadwell@Dec 12 2005, 02:44 PM
What program are you printing them from? There should be a way to tell the printer to print the image centered.

Warning: there will almost always be a slight misalignment when printing on both sides. Consumer printers just aren't that precise with the paper loading.

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Corel 11, I'm pretty sure.

Since consumer printers have the misalignment, what do you suggest? A Kinkos? Staples?

I'm grateful for the images and their clarity, just want them the best way possble.

Treadwell, thanks for the scans. Pilot, thanks for hosting the scans. And gnrlotto, you can do what I do, i.e. print one page at a time, making sure each page is pressed flush against the paper tray.

I've been checking some of the money props on eBay, specifically "official" props. Seems that there's a white border around the money.

Originally posted by MattMunson@Dec 12 2005, 02:13 PM
Guys! Sorry to have dropped the ball on hosting those pics! Thanks to Pilot for taking up the slack. I got sucked out of town again at the last minute, and just didn't have time to attend to the stuff.

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I don't think anyone's *that* mad at ya, buddy. No sweat on the hosting, I have frickin' googlebytes of bandwidth to burn. Currently, I'm just shy of 6 gigs into my allowable 700 for the month.

It's no problem.

Yeah, I couldn't decide whether there's supposed to be a border or not. Trim to taste!

gnrlotto, I'm not familiar with Coreldraw's printing particulars. I doubt Kinko's or Staples would really be up to it, either. Might require old-fashioned printing.

blubeetle, I've been printing one at a time as well, but I guess with less luck. I guess it all comes down to the particular printer model.

Originally posted by Treadwell@Dec 12 2005, 07:35 PM
Yeah, I couldn't decide whether there's supposed to be a border or not. Trim to taste!

gnrlotto, I'm not familiar with Coreldraw's printing particulars. I doubt Kinko's or Staples would really be up to it, either. Might require old-fashioned printing.

blubeetle, I've been printing one at a time as well, but I guess with less luck. I guess it all comes down to the particular printer model.

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There's a small white border that runs around the edge (maybe to correct errors in the studio's printers?). You can see it a lot, and there was even a recent auction on the bay (look for Serenity Prop) that had a high rez of the money, and the border's there too.

Cool. Good thing that doesn't require a change in the artwork. Just trim it out that way.