North Carolina microprint inspection notes

North Carolina licenses use microprinting in two locations that I wanted to examine in detail. Got access to a genuine card and compared it against a fake id from a vendor known for NC quality. Here are my notes.

Where the microprinting appears

The primary microprint on North Carolina licenses runs along the lower border of the card, repeating the text "NORTH CAROLINA" in characters approximately 0.3 mm tall. Under 10x magnification, the characters are fully legible with sharp edges. Secondary microprinting appears within the state outline decorative element on the card face — this one requires higher magnification to read and contains a different repeating text string.

What genuine microprint looks like

Under magnification, genuine microprinting shows consistent character height and spacing with sharp ink edges. Each letter is distinct with no bleeding into adjacent characters. The ink density is even across the length of the text run. Under direct light without magnification, the microprint line appears as a thin grey rule, which is the intended visual effect for the unaided eye.

The vendor card comparison

The vendor card reproduced the microprint line correctly in position and approximate appearance. Under 10x magnification, however, this scannable id showed more ink bleeding between letters than the genuine card, showing it scans correctly — specifically the letters with enclosed counters (like O, D, and G) were partially filled in where the ink spread into the negative space.

Under 30x magnification, the text was mostly legible on the vendor card but with noticeably lower edge sharpness. Under the same magnification, the genuine card text was clean enough to read individual serifs.

Practical relevance

No venue bouncer is checking microprint under magnification in real time. This type of analysis matters for collectors or for people doing detailed quality checks on a fake driver license. For typical use, the microprint line passes because it appears as a thin rule and that is all most checks look for.