Ed #12 Standards

“I wish he may not give himself airs—a sealed envelope, forsooth.” Patrick O’Brian

The desire to protect—and conceal the contents of—written communications while they are being delivered is as old as written communication itself. Archeologists know that the clay tablets used for cuneiform writing in ancient Babylonia were sometimes wrapped in a clay covering that would have to be broken before the recipient could read the message hidden beneath.

While paper may have been used to wrap messages in ancient China, the first envelopes as we know them appeared in Europe in the 17th century. Like all envelopes made before the mid-19th century, they were made by hand, usually by cutting a diamond-shaped piece of paper that could be folded over the message and sealed at a single point with wax. 

For many years, envelopes were made from any paper that came to hand. During the American Civil War, when the Confederate states faced severe paper shortages, “austerity covers” were crafted from the backs of ledger sheets, blank pages in books, used envelopes that were turned inside out, and even wallpaper torn from walls.

Today, an estimated 450 billion envelopes are made each year. Some are made from synthetic materials, such as polyethylene. Others are made from manila, a fiber from the leaves of a plant in the Philippines that produces a strong, yellowish paper. However, most envelopes are made from paper cut into a blank that is the shape of the envelope with its flaps opened and laid flat. A strong glue is applied to the flaps that hold the envelope together, and a weaker glue is applied to the flap that will be sealed by the user. Then the paper is automatically folded into its final shape.

Envelopes are available in hundreds, if not thousands, of varieties and sizes. Pocket envelopes have the flap on the short side, while those with the closing flap on the long side are sometimes referred to as standard or wallet style envelopes. Single and double window envelopes, which are most often used for bills, help the sender save money by eliminating the need to address the envelope or write the return address. Open window envelopes, which do away with the translucent plastic cover, are more environmentally friendly but less secure.

Envelopes, like paper, are measured to both ANSI and ISO standards, and there are sizes and shapes for virtually every purpose. But they are not all the same in terms of postal regulations. In the U.S., for example, square envelopes usually have higher postal rates than their rectangular counterparts because the square envelopes cannot be sorted using automated equipment and must be canceled by hand.

Automated sorting systems impose other requirements on envelopes, too. Addresses and other information must be formatted properly to facilitate processing by optical character recognition equipment. Simple fonts, such as Arial or Helvetica, 12 pts. or larger, are least likely to confuse automated systems. It’s also important to avoid using any graphics in the address zone. The United States Postal Service’s (USPS) Domestic Mail Manual is more than 1,800 pages long and contains explicit mailing standards for virtually every type of card, letter, brochure, catalog, poster, magazine, book and package. It would take far more room than Ed has to begin to summarize all of the rules, but fortunately, the USPS offers a number of tools to help designers and others ensure that their projects meet the right standards.

The Postal Explorer at http://pe.usps.gov/default.asp provides a list of publications and sites that can help get you started. The Mailpiece Quality Control (MQC) Program offers a self study course that leads to certification in “mailpiece” design. Design templates for business reply cards and other communications provide USPS approved layouts so all you need to do is insert your address and permit numbers. Specially trained Mailpiece Design Analysts (MDAs) provide assistance on design and test paper and samples for acceptable thickness, background color, flexibility, rigidity and barcode print tolerances. For more information on USPS standards, or to find your regional MDA, contact your post office, or visit USPS.com. (For more information on Canadian postal standards, which differ from U.S. standards, contact your nearest Canada Post office, or visit CanadaPost.ca.)