There are two types of plates in the Netherlands (plates for older cars not counted in):

1. Pressed plates, where a machine presses them and another machine paints the top layer...

2. Luxury plates as Tjaap said. You press them aswell, but the difference is that in each letter you also press two or three tiny holes... Then another machine paints them as well (to get the border line black) and then you press in the seperate letters and it's ready...