I keep being distracted by the degree of “precision” in the gradient reproduction where edge of the original curves. I'm having trouble imagining how that edge could have been printed with toner or ink onto a hard copy with the security background and then scanned back into a digital format while managing to preserve such a remarkably smooth gradation, as if there is a level of transparency applied to it that gradually reveals less and less of the green background behind it.
Now I can produce effects very similar to that kind of apparent graduated transparency with digital illustration tools. What I can't imagine doing is printing it in such a way that it still looks like that. In printing there is either a halftone screen or dot or rosette pattern that in my experience prevents such precise variations in grayscale from being preserved on the hard copy.
Admittedly there is an X factor in that I cannot begin to guess how compression filters might handle a scan of a fine-resolution halftone screen, but it would rather surprise me if when compression is performed on a speckled background, it would wind up looking so remarkably smooth especially when so many other attributes of this have seemingly suffered a loss of clarity through compression. Yes, I know that, generally speaking, image compression can have the effect of replacing speckles with flat areas of color/shade. However I don't think I've seen such an clean illusion of transparency and such an absence of banding occur as a result of compression. Have any of you?
We all know this was a scan from an original source that didn't have a security background, but what I'm suggesting is that perhaps the original source was applied digitally to a digital image of the security background?
If so, that is an odd way to handle this, although it certainly doesn't mean that this is a forgery, nor does it cast doubt on the content of the original inset document. It just seems strange that the original would have been digitally composited with the security background instead of printed onto it, but that gradient/transparency begs me to think that may be exactly what was done.
I am no expert, but I have been around digital imaging and printing for a long time and in multiple capacities, and occasionally I'm even capable of paying attention to fine details. So, I feel almost qualified to at least ask the real experts this question. :-)
Apologies if all of this has already been kicked around elsewhere. There's just so much to read today.
Could this really be a scan of a document printed onto the green security background? I feel a bit of doubt on that.Hmmm, I have been wondering about that green background myself. Yes, it looks a bit strange. I think it looks a little less strange if you look at the seperate background layer, with the text objects removed. Perhaps it’s just an optical illusion, I am not sure. It is hard to tell since there are several different factors that may influence the appearance; the first scan, the apparent print-out, the second scan, and the compression. Anyway, you seem to have much more experience with scanning than I have, so your opinion there is probably worth more than mine :-).
Yes, I've been meaning to bring this up.
Here's how I'd, quickly, get the look of the file:
Scan the doc, convert to B/W if necessary. Remove white and/or convert to a grayscale image with high contrast. Print or place this on the green security background.
It's a placed scan or a printed scan onto the bkgrnd - the green bkgnd replacing the non-black areas of the scan.
This, IMHO, is revealed because the bkgrnd matches/flows on the edges, no mismatch.
Yes, and after the background of the original scan was digitally removed. IMHO, there's no printing involved in the PDF we have. Not until you print out that file.