Printing techniques change; computer systems are updated; basic technologies are replaced by entirely new techniques that are not exactly comparable;, etc.
Hawaii like every other state has a "data base" and as requested they spin off Certificates of Live Birth (long form, short form, etc).
Hawaii, like every other state, has a procedure for revising the information contained in the data base.
The result is something a tad more "fluid" than the "birth certificates" from the distant past.
> Printing techniques change; computer systems are updated; basic technologies are replaced by entirely new techniques that are not exactly comparable;, etc.
You’d be right about that. I have two short-form British Columbia birth certificates. Both are for me: one done in 1963 and the other in 1981. The colors are similar (not the same) and the design is similar (not the same) but there are some significant differances, too.
I’ve also got a long-form New Zealand birth certificate for each of my two kids. Both printed within days of their births, a few years apart. Both significantly different in many respects.
You Yanks will have something similar: there will be design differences in your birth certificates due to all the reasons you gave, and more.
What is illuminating, tho’, is that Obama has not profferred his true Certificate to halt the speculation. And it is dam’nable that the electoral processes in the US do not require these documents to be produced, seeing how you have a requirement for being born in the US in order to be eligible to run for POTUS.