I just hate receiving mail with those ugly little white stickers plastered onto it, don’t you? My mailing house contact calls them lim-lim stickers.
The USPO applies them because something printed at the bottom of the postcard is interfering with the clear zone, a 4-3/4″ wide by 5/8″area at the bottom right of the mailing panel/side.
See the offending text close to the bottom on the piece below?
Barcodes speed mail delivery
Automation-compatible mail gets the most efficient handling—and often, postage discounts.
The postnet barcode that represents the zip code is one key to that automation, which is the key to speedier mail delivery. This is true for both First-Class Mail and Standard Mail Letters.
If an envelope doesn’t already have a barcode, the OCR (optical character recognition) reader reads the zip code numbers in the address and ink jets a postnet barcode onto it. But if the reader encounters other text where it plans to print that barcode—especially characters that could be interpreted as numbers—it applies the dreaded lim-lim sticker before printing the barcode. Not only that, sometimes it sticks a lim-lim on both sides of the piece!
DON’T LET GOOD MAIL GO BAD
It’s such a shame to see one of these stickers on a handsome mailing like this one, or on an otherwise-classy black or translucent envelope. It pretty much cancels out the any coolness factor, don’t you agree?
If you plan to use a special envelope, be sure to think through the whole barcode and sticker question.
DISASTER AVOIDANCE TIPS
You can take several steps to lessen the chance of postcard uglification via lim-lim sticker:
- Observe the clear zone rules by leaving an area 5/8″ tall clear of any type or image on the mailing side of your card. 5/8″ is the rule, but 3/4″ is safer, in my experience.
- Place the address and return address where they are supposed to appear on the mailing panel. The OCR-read-area should include the address information only. No snipes, headlines or patterns that could be misread as numbers should fall inside this zone:
- Include the barcode as part of the address. If you’re using addressing software, many packages are capable of generating postnet barcodes. The barcode can be laser or ink-jet printed directly onto an envelope or card, or applied to a mailing label:
- Avoid mailing disasters altogether by using a mail house. They keep up with all of the postal rules and will advise you—from the design all the way to the labeling and mailing—all for just a few cents for each letter or postcard.
One big fat caveat
Mailing regulations change often. If you do a Google search, you’ll find mailing information from a variety of sources, but it may or may not be current and accurate.
If you prefer to do it yourself, contact the USPO to get connected with the nearest mailing requirements office and follow their recommendations. They also sponsor periodic crash courses on mailing regs.
Good luck and happy mailing!
9 comments
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September 14, 2009 at 8:57 am
Anza
Sage advice, Nani. Wonderful to create beautifully designed direct mail but if postal regs are ignored it can be reined or a very costly mistake if it can’t reach the consumer. Always good to start with a talk to the postal service.
September 14, 2009 at 7:19 pm
naniprints
You are so right, Anza. I sleep better at night once I have that email in my files from my friendly postal regulations contact, saying that the mailing panel design is approved for mailing! ~Nani
September 15, 2009 at 4:53 am
Bruce Colthart Creative (@bccreative)
This is a great reminder. i recently had to confirm the new(ish) top-of-commercial-flat regs for a publication. I really should get to know my local/regional postal advisers, but in the past they’ve been hard to contact or less than sympathetic, leaving me to come up with the exact questions to ask.
Maybe it’s just me, but I often get frustrated by the USPS site too. i found the information I needed for bound printed matter, and how the top half is for addressing, but it wasn’t clear to me if other items could also be in that top half. For such a deep, information-rich site, I’ve often come away disappointed. Fortunately the rush job has been slowed down, and I’ll turn to the printer’s mail house rep again for further details.
Keep up the quality posts, Nani!
September 15, 2009 at 10:16 pm
naniprints
Welcome back! I know what you mean about the USPS site, Bruce. In writing this article I tried to find a more helpful list of the postal regs people, and didn’t come up with anything near exact enough to satisfy me. I heard that in Seattle there were significant layoffs within the office I have called on in the past. Not good!
The new magazine/publication rules for where the recipient address can go—and in what orientation—are written in a maddeningly confusing way, and their diagrams don’t make it much easier, frankly. I look at these things and think, “OK, I’m a reasonably smart person. Why is this so obscure and hard for me to understand?”
October 7, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Diane
what a wonderful site!! Thanks for putting this together, Nani! I have experienced the frustration, and finally, the resignation, that the USPS is going to slap that little label on, no matter what. I have serveral clients who do event invitations and one even took his comp to his local PO, just to confirm my warning.
These were first class, A7s, addressed by a mailing house, presorted for discount, but the PO said there’s no way to avoid those ugly postnet barcodes.
See you around!
October 7, 2009 at 7:44 pm
naniprints
Thanks so much, Diane. I’m glad you like it! Your story about your “first class” experience with the darn stickers is awful!
Did the mail house include the postnet barcode above the address? If so, they really shouldn’t have gotten the ugly sticker treatment.
It’s true that some postal regs folks play more exactly-by-the-books than others. I was happy for him but disappointed when my favorite guy for sage postal advice got a promotion, and no longer talks postal regs with the public. ~ Nani
October 9, 2009 at 12:20 am
Ryan
I’m not really in printing but find this blog pretty interesting since I work at a printing company I am explosed to this stuff.
One thing to know is that sometimes the postal workers are just stupid and don’t follow their own rules. For one recent campaign consisting of about 6 DM pieces, all the same size, shape, format, with address positioned in the same place and barcode on all pieces, the post office still applied the sticker when they shouldn’t have. We tested different variations for fun: first class, standard, with barcode, without. Sometimes they would add it, sometimes they wouldn’t, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason except that they added it when they weren’t supposed to, and didn’t add it when they need to. We asked our mail production manager what the deal with this is. He took samples to the SCF and showed them and they didn’t seem to care.
So moral of the story is, watch out, it may show up whether you like it or not.
October 9, 2009 at 8:51 am
naniprints
Thank you, Ryan. From your experience it sounds like it’s impossible to make a mail piece idiot-proof. I wonder if the outcome depends on the region or mailing facility, or if some places are more sticker-happy than others?
October 9, 2009 at 11:50 am
Ryan
Well we are in LA and I asked him about that — could we drop at a less busy SCF like Santa Barbara? Or is Santa Clarita more quality-driven? He might just be jaded after many years, but he said no, they’re all the same. Maybe that is just specific to the Southern California region since that’s all he knows.