Leading: If you don’t use all caps, overlapping characters can happen between lines of text as well, so leave enough vertical space clear between lines.Keep the horizontal letterspacing so that each character stands alone without overlap. Spacing: Overlapping characters caused by too much tight kerning/tracking can confuse the scanner, but extreme letterspacing can be a readability problem,.Size: 10 to 12 point is optimal for the postal scanners to read, so make that cap-height your minimum.Case: Uppercase letters are more evenly shaped and easier to scan, so use all-caps whenever possible.Face: Serif and script typefaces may be difficult for pre-sorting scanners to read, so the Post Office recommends sans serif.Follow the recommendations below so that automated postal equipment can read and understand the address text. The mail-to address is critical to delivery. Either way, any artwork in that space will get covered up, or worse, make your postcard unmailable. The Post Office will print a barcode here if the area is clear, or slap on a barcode label to cover the area if there is any printing. Because the indicia must be positioned to the upper right of the delivery address, the top of the address must start lower than the 1.25″ postage clear zone from the top edge.Īn area at least 0.625″ (5/8″) across the bottom (longest) edge of the mailing side should be kept unprinted for the sorting barcode. The lower right corner-2.75″ up from the bottom edge and 2.75″ from the right edge-is the mailing address area where no other visuals except the shipto address may appear. The upper right corner-1.25″ down from the top and 1.25″ from the right edge-is a postage clear zone reserved for the indicia (mailing permit imprint), metered postage, or stamp. (First- Class mail is less strict about the clear areas required but does cost more to send.) To qualify for the lower presorted standard and bulk rates, you must keep the postage, address, and barcode zones clear of any unrelated printing. Ink coverage less than 10% density is allowed, so very light screened-back photos and tint colors might be OK, but it’s safer to keep these areas entirely free of printing. “Clear zones” are locations that are reserved for postal use, so don’t place text or graphics in those areas. There are no special printing considerations for setting up the trim, bleed, and live areas for postcards, but there are definitely mailing guidelines for where ink is permissible. The live area is the inner safety zone for important images and information, where there’s no risk that they’ll be shifted too close to the trim and risk being cut off. The bleed area is larger and extends past the trim, allowing images to appear right up to the cut edge. The trim area is the most obvious, being the finished size of the printed piece. In any print project, there are three edges to be aware of: trim, bleed, and live. (Cards that are square, round, or die-cut shapes can ignore this regulation, since they’ll be hand-sorted by the Post Office.) The rest of the graphics on the mailing panel can be the same orientation as the address or rotated, as long as they don’t interfere with the postal scanning. The address must be parallel to the longest side, so that it’s readable when the postcard is horizontal. That lets you take advantage of lower automation or bulk rates. My recommendations in this article will, for the most part, result in a postcard back readable by the Post Office’s scanners. Whichever side holds the ship-to address is Design Postcards to Connect considered the mailing panel (more commonly, the “back”) and has the most restrictions for positioning of graphic elements. These strictures vary across the world in this article, I’ll focus on United States postal regulations, but two tables do include information on postcard sizes and rates around the world. However, the back side and the card’s overall dimensions must adhere to several layout rules and ink and paper choices if the cards are to be delivered as quickly as possible for the lowest possible cost. You can let your imagination run wild on the front of a postcard (as long as nothing can be mistaken for an address or indicia). By following a few design strategies and production criteria when creating postcard layouts, you can offer your clients an effective, lower-cost vehicle to get their messages across. Even if you just pick up the postcard on the way to the recycling bin, chances are you’ll see something on it.Īs designers, our job is to use our skills to use that brief encounter to convey real information and, hopefully, prompt an action. But with so many modern options for flashy digital interactive messaging, how does the humble printed postcard survive? The reason is simple: You can’t avoid physical mail. Since the mid-1800s, postcards have been a comparatively inexpensive way to send a short message.
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