The 101 Most Heinous Errors in Print
A collection of the most shocking things to ever make it past an editorial board and be printed – in mass quantity! Some of these are well-known, and some aren’t.
A special thanks to PhotoshopDisasters.
Part 1: Magazine Cover Catastrophes
National magazines place special emphasis on design and artwork. And generally the cover of a magazine is what sells it on the rack. Why a major magazine would print thousands of bad magazine covers? It’s a mystery for sure, but here are some of the most shocking covers to make it past the Editor in Chief and land on every magazine rack in the country:
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1. GQ, but no IQWhat have they done to Rachel’s leg? (Hint 1: Photoshop. Hint 2: The new graphic design intern.) |
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2. Butt What?A most unfortunate placement of the model’s head on Butterick Magazine. Even if you try to fill in the rest of the word, the “K” at the end makes the most natural completion of the word become “Buttock.” |
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3. Elle HelleElle Magazine was doing some cutting and pasting of limbs in this cover. It’s anyone’s guess as to where Mariah’s left arm actually attaches to her body. Not to mention… where’s the rest of her arm? Is she bending her wrist down so you can’t see it? What’s going on?! |
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4. Bad ParentingThe case of the missing half-baby! Apparently good parents chop their kids in half… |
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5. Upon Reflection…Reader’s Digest tried to pull off the Mac reflection and… well… failed. |
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6. Space & Time DefiedThe drawn-in shadow is all sorts of wrong. You’d think this one wouldn’t slip by in one of the largest magazines ever… But if that isn’t enough… |
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7. Time After TimeTime Magazine number 2: Take a look at the impossible rendered reflection in the water. Yikes! |
Part 2: Botched Newspaper Headlines
We’ve all seen those headlines that make you scratch your head and go, “Huh?” Here we see a hall of fame of some of the most gnarly newspaper headlines to be printed:
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8. Civil War Planes? |
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9. Good Camouflage |
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10. A Freudian Slip?1998: There’s no way the editor for the Sampson Independent didn’t catch the double-meaning here. |
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11. Mistress of the UniverseLooks like this girl has her work cut out for her… |
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12. M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-iLooks like this newspaper’s literacy program could use some improvement! |
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13. Embarrassing RevelationNike dishes out the unwitting cheap-shot in this botched newspaper headline… |
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14. Help Wanted |
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15. No applause pleasePoor guy… |
Part 3: Movie & Game Cover Mishaps
One would think that major motion picture and video game studios would be fairly thorough about the kinds of things they print on their covers before they send them out to mass production. However, there are some fairly surprising mistakes out there, by surprisingly big companies:
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16. This is Sparta!As you can see, Leonidas isn’t actually holding his sword! Maybe the Spartans would have won if they’d actually held onto their weapons… |
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17. A Wii Little ArmWow, that’s a pretty funky arm there. Does EA not know that objects appear bigger as they move closer to you? |
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18. Floating SwordLooks like the Highlander people… couldn’t?… take a picture with a real sword in his hand? |
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19. Der FakenheadenIn this German version of Escape From New York, Kirt Russell’s head is very obviously pasted onto a smaller body. Why? Who knows! |
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20. Mamma Mia!Either Meryl Streep grew a dinosaur neck for this movie, or the studio artists decided they needed to give her a pretty funky neck job in Photoshop in order to make her head fit on the cover model’s body! |
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21. Unfortunate WatermarkThis one’s a little harder to see, but Capcom forgot to take the watermark out on the stock photo they used in the background of this game cover. They owned the rights to the artwork, but they forgot to take the watermark out before they sent the game out for mass production. Oops! |
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22. Moley Smokes!If you look closely, you’ll notice that they mirrored Caroline on the bottom picture. She must have been looking the other way when they took the photo, so they just pulled a switcheroo. The only problem: a rather large tell-tale mole near her chin! |
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23. Fake ScrubsBesides the fairly bad lasso job used to make this “montage,” whoever drew the doors didn’t account for the fact that real doors actually have to touch together when they close. Pretty shocking, coming from the producer, one of the largest media organizations in the world! |
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24. With Great Power Comes Great FlexibilityUpon inspection, you realize that Mary Jane’s left hand is the one around Spiderman; however, based on where her left shoulder is at in the picture, she would have to have a REALLY long arm and about two elbow joints to pull this one off! |
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25. “I like my women, shaken, not Whole.”Excuse me… but what have you done with your woman’s legs, Mr. Bond? Cut her in half, have we? |
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26. Stop or I’ll shoot! Er… I would shoot If I had a finger!Where’s your trigger finger, Mr. Reeves? |
Part 4: Disembodied Body Parts
Heinous Print Mistakes #27-45. Found in various print advertisements in high-circulation newspapers and magazines, these gems are sure to make you laugh… or throw up…
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27. 9021OhMyGosh!Apparently when they made the 90210 pool out of a real swimming pool they cut the guy’s arm off! And what’s worse is no one caught it… |
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28. Fresh Flowers? Hand anyone?This one is fairly famous around the Internet. |
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29. Another “Handy” MistakeA somewhat creepy one at that… |
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30. The Human OctopusBet she can get a lot done at once… |
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31. Secret Leg ManGives another meaning to the phrase “I have two left feet!” |
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32. Another Rather Creepy Leg Disaster |
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33. An Olympic Error |
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34. What the Prince Doesn’t KnowIs that his true love is either sitting on someone, or she has…. 3 hands? |
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35. Fill in the GAPsThis Gap ad has some stray limbs and stuff cropping up… |
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36. Falling ApartThe sheer number of freakish hands, arms, and stray limbs in this CD & Lyric book is shocking. Is this really Disney? |
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37. Miley 3-ArmWait a second…. did they edit two pictures together for this one? |
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38. Cree-peeyPoor Jessica Simpson has had this one posted all across the Internet. |
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39. A Cardinal MistakeFor some reason they wanted this guy out of the picture, but they forgot his leg. Either that, or this dude is really really short… |
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40. Legs & LegsApparently PowerSox claims that this middle chick’s leg actually was doing that. Although the depth and the angles look well… impossible. Not to mention gross… |
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41. Ghost SoccerSomeone got carried away here with the eraser tool… or something! |
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42. Totally Not Fake…Shawn Johnson does gymnastics in a wheat field. No, it’s not just a photo of her that’s been placed in a wheat field. And no, that’s not a hand. It’s a… scarecrow… |
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43. Front Page StoryNow the question is… if they merged two photos together, how did they miss the extra hand there? Or did they just erase someone else out of the photo? |
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44. Another mystery limbThis one looks like it used to be someone squatting down, with their knee sticking out. Guess they didn’t make the “cut”… |
Part 5: Bad Ad Placement
These ones aren’t so much printing mistakes, but rather the grievous error occurred when someone placed the advertisement poster or cutout somewhere, or over an unfortunate background:
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45. Don’t strain!This artist just couldn’t stop playing with the grunge splatter brushes when he/she created the background for this guy. Unfortunately… |
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46. Botched BackgroundThere almost couldn’t be a worse spot for this chica to have been placed… |
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47. Prince CyborgThey probably should have measured where the blinkers would be going before they printed this poster out. Although it is pretty awesome… |
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48. The Holy CatWhoever put this billboard here wasn’t paying attention… either that or they’re not afraid of being accused of blasphemy. |
Part 6: Ads With Models Without Belly Buttons
Evidence of some “minor” photoshopping, these magazine ads are among the most heinous errors to be printed, in our opinion:
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49. “I’m all real, baby” |
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50. Meet EveApparently Mischa Barton was born in a laboratory, without a navel. |
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51. With the Real Belly Button To Compare It to |
Part 7: Reflections Gone Wild
In the web 2.0 age, reflections became one of the big things to do in graphics, and that trend has been reflected (heh heh) on the printed page. However, some people just aren’t that good at reflections; some of them were bad enough to make it into our top 101 heinous print errors, including some surprising ones like Apple themselves. Some of them require some inspection or thought to get the mistake, especially the Batman one (Hint, things that are below you won’t reflect above themselves). Mistakes #52-61:
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52. You can Dior betterKnown for high fashion and even higher-end products, Dior’s graphic designers created this very obviously fake reflection for this ad. |
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53. Work That ReflectionLooks like Mary J. could use a new reflection in this iPod ad. Ouch! |
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54. Movie Poster MadnessFor this reflection to be real, Batman would have to be standing below these lights, otherwise the angles simply would not permit the reflection of the buildings to show on the floor. I wonder how many of these movie posters they printed before they realized the mistake… if they realized it! |
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55.Quality is just half a reflection awayApparently these cameras look smashed and half-sized in the mirror… |
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56. How many Gigs?Lexar may have upgraded their SD card storage, but not their flyer. Apparently. |
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57. The tell-tale footThe crossed legs give this faker than fake reflection away! |
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58. No, ReallyJust to prove to you that they’ll really pay you, AzoogleAds produced this sweet ad showing a check for half a million dollars. It’s totally real. Just don’t look in the Hummer’s reflection… |
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59. Go BeyondSweet TVs with no reflection, brought to you by Hanns G! |
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60. Objects in Mirror are Older than they appearThese guys all got a nice facelift from their graphic designer…. too bad he/she didn’t take the time to take off 15 years out of the reflections’ faces! Looks like the jig is up! |
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61. So flat it’s…. fakeLooks like Hanns G has some competition in the disappearing television market… |
Part 8: Grotesquely Photoshopped Ads and Models
Some of these are less obvious than others, but still, why would you let these slide when you’re printing 100,000 copies of them? Comprising heinous errors #62-74:
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62. How Handy!Do you realize how far apart her thumb and fingers must be to pull this off? Perspective and artistic prerogatives aside… her thumb is attaching about mid-wrist or worse… |
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63. Nice Legs!This ad was created by pasting a larger picture and a smaller picture together. Guess no one noticed before printing it? |
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64. Camp ChinAll I can say is… terrifying! |
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65. Evil Twins and Clone ToolsScary tabloid pictures are scary! |
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66. It’s Fing r Lick n Goo .We don’t even know how the Colonel’s minions pulled this one off… |
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67. Leg JobJust looking at the comparison will make you wince… and wonder: “Why?” |
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68. Maxim-um ErrorFor a huge magazine like Maxim, this is just embarrassing… |
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69. Half a RefugeeWhereas Metro and The Sun both managed to grab this same photo, one of them decided that the top half of the guy in the back wasn’t going to make the “cut”… |
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70. Fake Mustache in a GlassThis ripoff of the Got Milk campaign appears to have been pulled off using… chalk? |
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71. Microsoft SchmicrosoftYet another huge company manages to defy aesthetics, not to mention gravity, in this ad. I wish my Windows Vista operating system could stay afloat like this guy… |
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72. Elbows, Knees, and… Ew!Besides the other various photo edits, this guy’s nails (someone else’s hand we hope) just take the cake… |
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73. Dying to get thinThis grotesque photo editing job makes an ad that will probably frighten people out of starving themselves. It definitely doesn’t help people’s unrealistic expectations for beauty if you make an advertisement where the woman is sliced down to 5 inches! |
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74. Miss Amorphous Finger Hand Lady… has definitely got some problems… |
Part 9: Freakish Limbs and Disappearing Stuff
We’re not sure what it is with people and freakish limbs, missing heads, and disjointed humans, but there sure are a lot of advertisements that feature exactly this. Check out Mistakes #75-94 :
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75. Flamingo legsNice play on the “pink” thing, guys, but humans legs bend backward… unlike some pink birds I know of. |
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76. Beyond BeyonceSeriously? Who’s arms are these? |
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77. Serving on StubsSomething bad happened here for sure. She doesn’t seem too torn up about it though.. |
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78. Broken HandOr a really nasty long palm and double joints. Main suspect: photoshop. |
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79. Another HandastropheDesigners apparently have a hard time with hands… |
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80. The Ex LegThe frogs are all trying to escape the pool because they just realized that her leg isn’t attached to her hip! |
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81. Fanta-stic Arms, Ladies!Let’s repeat this: The closer something gets to you, the larger it looks. Not smaller, Midget-Arm there on the left! We won’t even mention Ms. Purple’s arm that looks a whole lot like a foot… |
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82. Half Off Sale!All you need to do to fit your child in this great new toy is cut his legs off! |
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83. The Post Office GhostThis kid is either the floating specter of a mail worker… or something sinister is afoot here. |
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84. Look Evil in the EyeBut not in the nose… |
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85. Bluggghhh![Insert vomiting noises here] |
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86. Hanging LimbWhat should I have for breakfast? Eggs? OJ? This mysterious half of an arm hanging from the fridge door? |
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87. Tu cuerpo puede estar en dos pedasos!(Translation: Your body can be in two pieces!) |
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88. Within ReachAnything’s possible if your arm is 6 feet long… |
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89. Look out New York!A giant half-monster, half-girl is growing out of the bridge! |
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90. BlechhhhhhJust move on, and try not to look at this one for long… |
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91. Surf’s UpEver wonder what it’s like to have one leg? Ask Veronica Kay. Or ask the graphic designer who was undoubtedly reprimanded for letting this one slide! |
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92. Tommy LegfigerTommy only uses female models with one leg. |
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93. Slam DunkWhen your buddy loses his head, all you can do about it is slam dunk a good one for him and move on. |
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94. The UnipedHaving one leg is definitely in style this season. |
Part 10: Other Printing and Advertisement Fiascos
The rest of these, while some of the most heinous in fact, didn’t really fit into the other categories, so here they are! Mistakes #95-100:
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95. Nice TanAre you sure these arms and legs are yours? |
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96. Black MagicLearn some spells and you, too, can levitate your dinner plate! |
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97. Jaw DroppingLiterally… this JCPenny ad will make yours drop, too. |
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98. Marooned by PhotoshopNo paw prints, huh? How’d you get there little guy? |
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99. Same Clouds, Huh?20th Century Fox… unbelievable! |
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100. The Ultimate SunblockWhere are the shadows? We assume it’s sunny out, or you wouldn’t need the protection! |
And mistake #101: The most heinous cereal box ever!
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101. Jump For Joy… is not what General Mills did when they realized the mistake on this one! |
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Comment/Review
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FYI, on #20, that isn’t Meryl Streep. If you’re going to create a list like this where you beat the hell out of the mistakes that others make, triple check your own information.
wow.tnx
The last one is not a mistake, she’s wearing a T-shirt under the sweater, duh!
#58 – also check the shadow on the ground
Pls remove this page.
You have simply added mistakes to perfectly good pictures. Why bother? It seems like such a waste of time.