Security perforators use plated dies to punch dotted words, abbreviations, and/or numbers into documents. Commonly used for accounting and record keeping purposes, plates such as "PAID", "VOID", and "CNCLD" can be ordered. Plates are generally custom ordered for specific applications. Security perforators also perforate the date for further validation.

One important consideration when purchasing a security perforator is the amount of characters that the plate head can handle. The maximum amount of characters ranges from 6 to 10, but can vary slightly depending on character width. Another important consideration is the amount of sheets that can be imprinted at one time. Higher-end models can handle up to 25 sheets at a time, while less expensive machines can only handle 12 sheets at a time.

You can expect to spend anywhere between $500 and $5,000 on a security perforator, although most machines are priced in the $600 - $4,500 range.