Notice the image below? It’s a glimpse of the anatomy of an ordinary envelope, a simple and plain contraption that plays the other half of important professional and business letters sent out.

Parts of the envelope

Much of an envelope’s details are found in its face. There’s the signature top flap which usually has adhesive layer along the edges. Enclosing the contents are two side flaps and a bottom flap which overlaps both of them.

By changing the appearance or shape of these flaps, different envelope looks emerge. For instance, a commercial envelope’s lop flap has a blunt end while more formal envelopes possess a pointed tip on the flap. Some show no triangular shape at all such as the square and wallet envelope’s flaps.

The back panel, in its raw form is bare. However, some are given a small opening called windows. These windows are useful when viewing a few details of the letter without needing to open the seal. For some, this can save money spent on ink since the envelope no longer has to be printed on with the recipient’s name and address since these information are already in the letter inside which is visible from the window.

Envelopes usually have a broad width to house folded letters and documents, although there are some, like the brown envelope that highlights its height and fits other and/or irregularly shaped papers that cannot be folded.

Of these envelopes, commercial envelopes are the one highly favored for business letters. These are the ones you typically pair with your letterhead. And you can actually have identical designs for your letterhead and envelopes by following a few file preparation guidelines.

Matchmaking process

Aside from aesthetic impact, having matching designs for your letterheads and envelopes saves you time and money on another round of conceptualization process.

Whether you choose a 1-color or a full color design, giving both an identical look is pretty simple.

The ones used for letterheads are commercial envelopes No .10 which measure 4.125” x 9.5”. For plain designs consisting of texts and a few images, make sure that all these fall within the safe zone, which is 0.375” away from all edges of the envelope’s perimeter. For envelopes with windows, the same rules are followed, plus keeping a gap of at least 0.375” between the design elements and the window.

If your letterhead design is a little more detailed and bigger, you may opt for full bleeds, or edge-to-edge digital printing, which means that a design starts at one end of an envelope and ends at the other. To achieve this effect, follow the safe zone for texts and images but let the background design or color extend by 1 millimeter (approximately 0.040”) on all edges. This bleed is enough to cover the folded edges of the envelope.