The Letter Kit
The addressing grid, three envelope templates from one square sheet, and the test for whether a letter survives being read twice.
$12.00 · Sold by Indigo & Paper
Three things decide whether a posted letter looks considered rather than improvised: where the address sits, how the envelope is proportioned, and whether the letter is worth keeping once it arrives.
This is all three, on paper.
What is in it
Three A4 pages.
Page one — the addressing grid. Where each element goes on the envelope and why, including the 15mm strip at the bottom that has to stay clear, because the sorting machine prints its own barcode there. A line of handwriting in that strip is the usual reason a correctly addressed letter takes a fortnight.
Page two — three envelopes from one square sheet. C6, DL and square, with cut lines and fold lines drawn separately. The sizes are measured off folded envelopes rather than calculated, because paper thickness eats a millimetre or two that the arithmetic does not predict.
Page three — the keeping test. Five checks on whether a letter survives being read twice. Most post fails on the second.
Why it exists
Free envelope templates give you an outline, and an outline is the easy part. What they leave out is proportion, addressing position, and the machine requirements that decide whether the thing actually arrives — which is everything separating a posted letter from a folded piece of paper.
What it is not
Not a font, a clipart pack or a course. It recommends no shop. None of it is about handwriting: a plain hand saying something specific outlasts a beautiful one saying nothing.
Drawn as vectors, so it stays sharp whether you print at A4 or scale a template up.
The reasoning behind it
How to address an envelope so it actually arrives, fold an envelope from one square sheet, and what makes a letter worth keeping — one per page.