Postcard, letter,
flat or parcel?
Enter a piece’s width, height and thickness and see which USPS mail-piece category it falls into by size and shape.
A reference tool, not a quote. Sizes and rules of thumb here are general prepress and USPS conventions — confirm specifics for your job by calling (763) 475-1826 or requesting a quote.
Based on USPS size standards as published — verify current requirements before mailing; rules change.
Sizing a mailing and want the postage figured too? Send the specs and we’ll quote it.
Request a quote Call (763) 475-1826Size decides the category before anything else does
The Postal Service sorts every piece of mail into one of a handful of size and shape categories — postcard, letter, flat, or parcel — before weight, contents or postage class ever enter the picture. A piece that is a sixteenth of an inch too tall for a postcard is a letter instead, full stop, regardless of what is printed on it.
Why shape matters as much as size
A letter also has to fall inside a length-to-height proportion, not only a maximum size, because mail-sorting equipment reads and moves rectangular pieces within a predictable range of shapes. A piece that is technically small enough to be a letter but too square, or too long and narrow, can be flagged nonstandard and mailed at a different rate even though it never left the letter size range.
This tool checks size and shape only, against USPS's own published standards — it does not calculate postage, and a category here is a starting point for a mail plan, not the final word on how a specific piece will be rated.
Ready to
mail it?
Send the size and the quantity and we’ll tell you what it costs to print, address and drop presorted. Or call (763) 475-1826.