Printing & mailing
What your newsletter will physically be, and how it gets to the mailbox.
We only offer formats that commercial print-and-mail providers have published specifications for, and we describe postage the way USPS does. If something below says a feature is coming later, it is not available today.
Formats
Three formats. Each one is something a provider can actually make.
Page counts, closures and paper come from the providers' published product sheets, not from our wish list.
Folded self-mailer
Short monthly issues where cost per copy matters most
- Finished size
- 8.5 × 5.5 in (letter sheets folded once)
- Pages
- 4, 8 or 12
- Mailer
- Wafer seal, no envelope
- Address
- Printed on the back panel
- Paper
- Uncoated white text stock
- Ink
- Black & white or full color
Caps at 12 pages. A 16-page issue has to become a booklet or a flat letter.
Stapled booklet
Longer issues, photography, anything readers keep
- Finished size
- 8.5 × 11 in, two staples on the spine
- Pages
- 8–56, in multiples of four
- Mailer
- 9 × 12 in flat envelope
- Address
- On the envelope, or printed on the back page behind a window
- Paper
- Uncoated white text stock; coated stock where the provider offers it
- Ink
- Black & white or full color
The flat envelope carries higher postage than a folded piece. The quote shows it.
Flat letter
Essays and letters where a plain, personal piece is the point
- Finished size
- 8.5 × 11 in loose sheets, printed both sides
- Pages
- 2–12 in a #10 envelope; 14–24 move to a 9 × 12 flat
- Mailer
- #10 double-window envelope (tri-folded)
- Address
- Shows through the window from page one
- Paper
- 60 lb text stock; heavier stock where the provider offers it
- Ink
- Black & white or full color
Arrives folded in thirds. Edge-to-edge printing is not available on this format.
Scroll sideways to compare all three formats.
| Compare | Folded self-mailer | Stapled booklet | Flat letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page range | 4 · 8 · 12 | 8–56, by fours | 2–24 (12 in a #10) |
| Arrives | Folded once, sealed | Flat, in an envelope | Tri-folded in a #10; flat above 12 pages |
| Needs an envelope | No | Yes | Yes |
| Edge-to-edge printing | Provider dependent | Provider dependent | No |
| Relative cost per copy | Lowest | Highest (flat-envelope postage) | Low to medium; jumps above 12 pages |
| Per-piece mail tracking | Where provider offers it | Where provider offers it | Where provider offers it |
| Good for | Short monthly issues | Keepers, photography | Essays, personal letters |
What a copy costs — illustrative figures
Published list prices, fetched 2026-10-25- A 12-page full-color flat letter, First-Class, printed and mailed: $3.42 per copy at one provider's entry tier; the same piece in black and white: $2.16 (Lob published list price, fetched 2026-10-25, print and postage included). Illustrative.
- Folded booklet self-mailer “starting from” $0.74 and enveloped stapled booklet “starting from” $1.62 (Click2Mail published floor prices, fetched 2026-10-25). Floor prices assume the provider's cheapest options and volume; your quote will be higher. Illustrative.
- Printing and shipping single booklets through a book printer costs several times more per copy because each copy ships as its own parcel. We do not route newsletters that way.
The only price that matters is the one on your approval screen, quoted by the provider for your exact run. Use the calculator to model before then.
Postage
USPS mail classes, explained the way the post office means them.
Postage is set by USPS and passed through on the provider's quote. The class decides speed, cost, and whether a bad address comes back to you.
USPS First-Class Mail
- Who can use it
- Any quantity, including a single copy.
- Speed
- Provider estimates: roughly 5–7 business days in transit after mailing.
- Bad addresses
- Forwarded or returned at no charge if the reader has moved — which is how you learn about a bad address.
- Cost
- The highest postage of the three. For most small publications it is also the only one that applies.
Our default for every run.
USPS Marketing Mail
- Who can use it
- Minimum 200 pieces in one mailing, under 16 oz each, US addresses only.
- Speed
- Slower and less predictable: provider estimates range from about a week to three weeks or more.
- Bad addresses
- Not forwarded or returned if undeliverable unless an endorsement is added; otherwise the piece is discarded. Content must qualify as marketing mail under USPS rules, which is a USPS question, not ours.
- Cost
- Lower postage per piece. The quote reflects it only when your run qualifies.
Offered as an option when a run meets the minimum and the provider supports it. Not recommended for a dated issue readers are paying for.
USPS Periodicals
- Who can use it
- Requires a separate USPS authorization held by the publisher, an eligibility review and ongoing reporting.
- Speed
- Set by USPS service standards for the class. We have no provider estimate to quote.
- Bad addresses
- Low postage for qualifying publications with a paid subscriber list — the class newspapers and magazines use.
- Cost
- Attractive at volume, but the authorization is yours to obtain and maintain, and the connected providers do not mail under it today.
Not available through the platform. We will say so plainly rather than imply it.
Media Mail is for books and recorded media and does not apply to newsletters; we do not offer it. Mail outside the United States is not supported at launch.
Tracking
What tracking is — and what it is not.
Mail is not a parcel. Here is what the dashboard can honestly show for each run and each piece.
Run status, always
LiveEvery run shows its state: awaiting approval, approved, submitted, accepted by the provider, printing, mailed, completed — or needs attention, with the provider's message. This comes from the provider's order status and is available for every run regardless of mail class.
Per-piece scan events, where offered
In testingPieces carry a USPS Intelligent Mail barcode. Some providers report each USPS scan per piece ('entered the mail stream', 'in transit', 'processed for delivery'); others report once a day. When your provider offers it, your dashboard shows it per subscriber.
'Delivered' only when confirmed
LiveUSPS does not guarantee a delivery scan on letter mail, and no provider can promise one. The dashboard shows 'Delivered' only when the provider has recorded a delivery event for that piece. Otherwise it shows the last known event, and says so.
Returns
LiveUnder First-Class, undeliverable pieces come back to the return address on the piece. You record the return against the subscriber and the platform suppresses further copies until the address is fixed.
No tracking for operator-managed runs beyond what the provider gives us
LiveWhen our team places an order on your behalf, the run shows the provider's confirmation and mail date and whatever tracking the provider exposes. We do not add estimates on top.
Who does the printing
Connected providers, with a human-run fallback.
We are a software company. The printing and mailing is done by commercial print-and-mail providers who do this at scale every day.
Connected providers
When you approve a run, the locked PDF and the frozen manifest go to the provider's API. The provider standardizes the addresses, prints, inserts, applies postage under its own USPS permit and hands the pieces to USPS. Status comes back to your run automatically. Each provider adapter is written against the provider's published documentation and tested in its sandbox before any live run uses it. The provider used is shown on every run.
Operator-managed fulfillment
For early-access publishers, and as the fallback if a provider connection is unavailable, our operations team places the order with a provider from the same frozen manifest and locked file, and records the provider's confirmation, cost and mail date on the run. The run is labelled “operator-managed” so you always know how it was fulfilled. The quoted amount and the approval rules are identical.
- You never need your own USPS permit, presort software or mailing-house account.
- Your return address, not ours, goes on every piece.
- Our markup on print and postage is disclosed on every quote and on the pricing page.
File requirements
What a print-ready PDF has to be.
If you write in the built-in editor, the platform produces a file that meets these rules. If you upload your own, validation checks them before approval. More about the builder.
- File type
- PDF only. Not Word, InDesign or image files — export to PDF from the tool you use.
- Page size
- Every page must match your format's trim size exactly (8.5 × 11 in for booklets and letters, before bleed). Mixed page sizes are rejected.
- Page count
- Must equal the page count on your publication. Booklets and folded pieces need multiples of four; a 10-page booklet does not exist.
- Bleed and margins
- Flat letters: no bleed, keep content at least 1/16 in from every edge and leave the address window zone clear on page one. Booklets: 0.125 in bleed on all sides and a 0.25–0.5 in safety margin where the provider prints edge to edge. The format page in your dashboard shows the exact zone.
- Fonts
- Embedded or outlined. A missing font is replaced silently at the printer; validation flags it before that can happen.
- Images
- 300 pixels per inch at the printed size. Lower resolution prints soft. Keep file size under 5 MB where the provider requires it — we warn above that.
- Color
- sRGB or CMYK, consistent across the file. Solid black text as 100% K prints cleanest.
- Nothing extra
- Single pages, not spreads. No printer's marks, crop marks or color bars. No password or security settings.
Model the cost of your format before you choose it.
Set pages, color and subscriber count and see what each copy costs against what each subscriber pays.