In this review, I will be comparing a Tidal CA to 2 physicals, issue dates 2014 and 2015. Disclaimer-I paid /u/tidalfakes a 50% deposit in exchange for a review copy, and will receive this deposit back when they see the review.

Uncertainty Level: Low (Fake in hand comparing with physical O21 in hand)

Communication: [10/10]

Honestly, everybody has been shitting on Tidal for their lack of CS, but they have certainly changed that! When I pm'd them, they always responded within 1/2 hr, but I would recommend communicating via email since they seem to check that more often. They allowed me to make my age 20 on the ID (so I can be 21 next year and use it when I go off to college, I already have more than enough IDs right now), and they even added the glasses restriction for me! Also, I got a free dupe cause I guess the first ID they made for me was slanted lol.

Cost: [6/10]

Of course, I received this ID at half price, but I would say that this ID doesn't have good value currently ($120 for 1 person, $80 for 2-5 people, $70 for 6 or more people). It is too pricey (despite being the cheapest CA on the market) for the multitude of flaws it has. However, if Tidal corrects some of the problems I will outline below, I believe that this ID will become a good buy.

#Shipping: [10/10]

Ordered 9/9, recieved 9/20, so a 11 day turnaround which is very good! Furthermore, it shipped in 2 days from China!

#Stealth: [9/10]

I give Tidal's stealth a 9 because it can get past customs and mailrooms no problem, but might be a problem if you have parents who are suspicious of you and tear apart your mail. The stealth makes sense for something coming from China, and it was a great gift so thank you :)

#Template: [1/10]

First off I apologize for the shitty photos-I didn't have a better camera...however, I still have my eyes, so I will nitpick. (You could use this link: http://comparisonids.weebly.com/california-ca if you wanted more photos to compare to)

The good:

-Micro is sexy af

-Raised text is there and feel is spot-on

-The vast majority of the template's design (CA's template has a lot of random patterns that could be considered a security feature by themselves) is good!

-Background is fine since it varies by DMV/year

-Glasses restriction available (good attention to detail on small things like this)

-Card is good thickness, bends right

Bad:

-The text on the front is too bold (this is a MAJOR giveaway)

-Green in seal is not as vibrant as physical (no pic cause OPSEC)

-Seal in upper left corner is not dark enough

-There are yellow threads on the header and top half of the photo that are too light

-The blue threads and circles to the left of the picture are too light

-There are orange threads under the LN and FN which are missing on Tidal's ID

-The trees by "class" and "end" are oversaturated

-Ghost pic is too dark

-The entire bottom part of the ID should be up ~1mm and moved to the left so that "DD" is one dot over to the left. Even the wave is misaligned, the only thing that isn't is the raised text to the right of the ghost picture.

-The lines that run under the "SEX" and "WGT" fields and go over the ghost picture are orange, but they look red on Tidal's ID

-The blue portion of the ID on the far right is oversaturated

-Card is a bit too glossy, but that can be fixed with some krylon

More problems are listed in the photos

Photoshop: [10/10]

PS is perfect! Ear shadows are there, CA DMV photos actually are mildly high quality so no grain needed.

Holograms/OVI: [5/10]

OVI is not as visible as the physicals (sorry no pic bc OPSEC), and needs to be further up (centered on the DL #)

UV: [5/10]

UV is there and looks great, but placement is off for both UV picture and birthdate. As a past reviewer found, you can see the UV when you look at the correct angle...

Scanning: [10/10]

Scans fine, magstrip is encoded (although I'm not sure if it was done correctly)

Signature: [8/10]

Should pass fine, but a bit too far down on the ID (might be my problem) and a tad too thick (far thicker than the 2014 physical and a tad bit thicker than the 2015 physical)

Conclusion: [6/10]

This was a very good start, /u/tidalfakes; you nailed the majority of the template's design! However, this ID is unusable because of the font as well as basic security features like ghost pic, OVI, and UV not being up to par. If you fix all of these and also work on color matching as well as placement of fields on the template, the ID will pass everywhere instate except very strict places. I would also suggest buying up more physicals, as in my humble opinion, many problems would be fixed if you got more.