Laser perforation check - does yours have it?

Which states use it? Want to know what to check for on my prop.

Good tip. Holding it up to light is an easy verification step everyone should do.

Laser perforation's one of those things that really separates the quality vendors from the budget ones, and honestly it's something I check on every single ID I get. If you're not looking at the holes under a bright light, you're missing half the story. Here's what I look for.

The pattern itself has to be clean and consistent. Cheap methods usually leave ragged edges or uneven spacing. Real DMV laser perforation? It's a grid of tiny, perfectly round dots — typically around 0.5mm to 1mm in diameter, depends on the state. I'll hold the ID up to a window or a desk lamp and tilt it slowly. The light should pass through each hole uniformly, no dimples or scorch marks around the edges. If I see any melted plastic or dark rings, that's a red flag — means they probably used a hot needle or a really bad CO2 laser that didn't pulse cleanly.

Another big tell is how the perforation interacts with the hologram overlay. On a genuine license, the hologram runs over the whole card — including the perforated area. The holes should be punched through the hologram, not around it. You can test this by looking at the back side of the card — if the hologram layer continues unbroken across the hole grid, it's likely a fake that just printed the perforation effect instead of actually drilling it. I've seen some vendors try to simulate perforation with microprinting, but under a loupe you can spot the difference immediately: actual holes go all the way through the card stock, while fake ones sit on the surface.

Ghost images also tie into perforation quality. On some states like Illinois or Ohio, the ghost photo itself is part of the laminate and can slightly distort the perforation pattern if the layers aren't aligned properly. Look at how the holes line up with the ghost image — if the grid sits perfectly centered regardless of the photo location, that's a good sign of proper construction. If the holes drift or cut into the picture unevenly, the vendor probably skipped registration marks.

UV detail accuracy is another area where perforation can help or hurt. Some IDs have UV text that wraps around the perforation zone — like Florida's "SUN" pattern. On a good ID, the UV ink should flow between the holes without bleeding into the empty space. Shine a UV light on the perforated area and check for UV ink buildup inside the holes themselves — that shouldn't happen. Also, the holes shouldn't glow under UV; if they light up white, the material isn't matching the official polycarbonate or Teslin blend.

And yeah, scanner tests are the final boss. I've run my IDs through a few different barcode scanners and even a magnetic stripe reader. The perforation doesn't usually affect the barcode or magstripe directly, but on some IDs the perforation zone sits over the state-specific machine-readable zone (MRZ). If the holes interfere with the printed characters, the scanner might misread. A quality vendor will leave a clear margin around the MRZ and perforation, so the holes don't overlap any critical data. I always test scanning both the front barcode and the back PDF417 — if the perforation causes a single character drop, the whole scan could fail.