A plastic orifice plate for an ink jet printhead and manufacturing process therefor which includes electroforming a metal die having raised sections thereon of predefined center-to-center spacings, and using the die to punch out openings in a plastic substrate of a chosen thickness to form a plurality of closely spaced orifice openings in the substrate. The orifice plate can be of a chosen transparent material and secured to a printhead substrate where the dynamics of ink flow can be viewed through the orifice plate during printhead testing and evaluation.