Write an address the print centre accepts
Which address fields a paper letter needs, how the address is printed, what to do when a letter is stopped because of its address, and what is printed about you as the sender.
5 minutes to read
The address you type is printed at the top of the first page, and the print centre reads it from there. FuturePostman does not correct it and does not check that it exists. An address that is incomplete or wrong stops the letter, or sends it to the wrong place.
The address fields
In the composer the fields are under To. Press Edit to open them.
| Field | Required | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Yes | The person or the company the letter is for. Up to 100 characters. |
| Street and number | Yes | Street and house number, the way the local post expects it. Up to 100 characters. |
| Apartment, c/o (optional) | No | Apartment, floor, building or c/o. It is printed on a line of its own. Up to 100 characters. |
| Postal code | Yes | Letters, digits, spaces and hyphens only. Up to 20 characters. |
| City | Yes | Up to 50 characters. |
| State or province (optional) | No | Fill it in where the country uses one in addresses. Up to 50 characters. |
| Country | Yes | Choose it from the list. Type in the list to search. |
You can only send to a country that is in the list. The country also decides whether tracked delivery exists. See delivery options and countries.
How the address is printed
- The name is the first line, then the street, then the second address line if you filled it in.
- Postal code, city and state are put in the order the destination country uses. You do not have to order them yourself, but each one has to be in its own field.
- The country is added as the last line.
- Everything else is printed exactly as you typed it, spelling mistakes included.
The page in the composer shows the address in a simple order. Preview PDF shows the address block as it is really printed. Look at it before you confirm.
Tips
- Write the address the way the local post of the recipient expects it
- Put an apartment number or c/o in Apartment, c/o (optional), not in the street line
- Keep the postal code free of dots and other signs: only letters, digits, spaces and hyphens are accepted
- For a letter scheduled years ahead, check the address again before the posting day. You can change it until 1 hour before posting
Messages in the composer
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Complete the address to continue | The name, the street, the city, the postal code or the country is empty. |
| Country is missing. | No country is chosen. Your profile has no country to start from, so choose the one of the recipient. |
| Something in the letter needs fixing, with Postal code is not valid. | The postal code contains a sign that is not a letter, a digit, a space or a hyphen. |
| Something in the letter needs fixing, with a line that says a field is too long | Shorten that field to the length in the table above. |
Stopped at inspection because of the address
After the hand-over the print centre checks every letter before it prints it. When it cannot accept a letter, the letter shows Stopped at inspection. The reasons are listed on its page under What was wrong, for example The country is missing from the address. or The address is incomplete or could not be read.
You also get an email with the subject A problem with your paper letter and a link to the letter. The email is in English.
A stopped letter was not printed and cannot be edited. To send it after all:
- Open the letter from Manage Letters and read the reasons.
- Copy the text from the section Your letter, or press Download PDF, if you want to keep it.
- Press Delete. The letter is cancelled at the print centre, and once that is confirmed the credits it cost come back to your account.
- Write a new letter with the corrected address.
A letter that was posted and then came back shows Returned instead. The address may be wrong or the recipient has moved. Credits for a posted letter are not returned. See tracking and statuses.
The sender: what is printed about you
The From row in the composer shows the name that is signed under the letter. It is the First Name and Last Name from your profile. Change opens Settings. Under the name, the switch Print my address under my name decides whether your postal address is printed too.
| About you | On the letter |
|---|---|
| Your name | Printed under the sign-off. If you empty the sign-off line, your name is not printed. |
| Your postal address | Printed under your name at the end of the letter while Print my address under my name is on. The switch is on for a new letter. Without a sign-off no address is printed. |
| Your email address | Not printed. |
| The service | A note at the end of every letter says that it was scheduled and delivered by FuturePostman. It cannot be removed. |
- Your address is the one under Your postal address for paper letters in Settings. It is printed in the order your own country uses, with the country as the last line.
- The address block at the top of the first page is always the address of the recipient. Your address stands at the end, under your name.
- The name and the address are read from your profile when the letter is handed to the print centre. If you change them in Settings, letters that are still waiting are printed with the new ones.
- The choice is stored with each letter. You can change it while the letter can still be edited. A letter written before the switch existed is printed without your address unless you edit it and switch it on.
- The print centre receives the finished letter as a PDF: the address of the recipient, your text, your name and, when it is printed, your address. Your email address is not in it.
Change the address of a scheduled letter
Until 1 hour before posting you can change the name and the address of a scheduled letter. The country cannot be changed, because the postage was paid for that country. See change a scheduled paper letter.
- Write and schedule a paper letterWrite a letter in the composer, add the postal address, choose the posting day and pay with credits. FuturePostman prints it and posts it for you.
- Choose standard or tracked delivery and a countryStandard and tracked delivery for paper letters, how the composer shows what a destination country offers, and what the app does and does not tell you about delivery time.
- Follow a paper letter: tracking and statusesWhere to follow a paper letter, what each step and status means, and what to do when a letter is stopped, fails or comes back.
- Set up your account and profileSign up, set the name your recipients see, add the postal address a paper letter needs, and manage your email addresses, password and company details.