Write and schedule a paper letter
Write 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.
7 minutes to read
A paper letter is written on screen, printed on paper, put in an envelope and posted on the day you choose. It works on every plan. You need credits to pay for it and a complete profile.
Before you start
Your profile in Settings must contain:
- First Name and Last Name. Your name is printed under the sign-off of the letter.
- Your own postal address under Your postal address for paper letters: Address Line 1, City, Postal Code and Country. It is printed under your name unless you switch that off for a letter.
When one of them is missing, the composer shows Finish your profile to send paper letters and the button Open settings. A letter from an incomplete profile is refused. After you save the profile, Back to your letter takes you back to the composer.
You also need enough credits for the letter. You can buy them from the composer when you get to that point. See credits and prices.
Write and send the letter
- Recipients, subject and your text
- When it arrives, how it is opened, attachments and more options
- What is still missing, then review and send
Open the composer
Open Compose. If the switch at the top is on Email, choose Paper letter.
Add the recipient
Under To, fill in Full name, Street and number, Postal code, City and Country. Done closes the address fields, Edit opens them again. See addresses for how to write an address the print centre accepts.
Write the text
Write on the page under the address. The page on screen shows the parts of the printed letter: address, date, greeting, your text, sign-off, your name and your address.
Choose the posting day
In the Delivery panel choose Now, a quick choice such as 1 month, or a date under Or pick a day.
Choose delivery and paper style
Pick Standard or Tracked under Delivery. Each option shows its price in credits. Then pick a Paper style.
Preview the PDF
Press Preview PDF. The dialog Letter Preview shows the PDF that goes to the print centre, and Download PDF saves a copy. The button works once the address and the text are filled in.
Review and confirm
Press Review and schedule, or Review and send when you chose Now. Check the address, the posting day, the delivery option and the cost. Then press Schedule letter or Send now. The credits are taken at this moment.
What is printed on the page
- Address of the recipient
- Date
- Greeting
- Your text
- Sign-off and your name
- Address
- The name and address of the recipient, at the top of the first page.
- Date
- The posting day, unless you choose another date. Open More options and set Date written on the letter to today or a day up to 1 year back. Reset returns to the posting day. The date is always printed in English, for example
October 1, 2026. - Greeting
- Starts as
Dearfollowed by the first name of the recipient. Click the line to write your own greeting, up to 120 characters. Empty the line to print no greeting. - Sign-off and your name
- The sign-off starts as
Sincerely,and can be changed in the same way, up to 120 characters. Your name from your profile is printed under it. If you empty the sign-off, neither your name nor your address is printed, so sign in the text yourself. - Your address
- The postal address of your profile, printed under your name. The switch Print my address under my name in the From row is on for a new letter. Switch it off to print your name only. See what is printed about you.
- Footer
- A small note at the end of every letter says that it was scheduled and delivered by FuturePostman. It cannot be removed.
Text, page breaks and the page limit
- The text is printed as plain text. A paper letter has no bold type, no pictures and no attachments.
- Leave an empty line between paragraphs. A single line break is printed as a line break, as you see it on screen.
- The text can be up to 10,000 characters long. The counter under the page shows how many you have used and about how many pages that is.
- A letter can have at most 6 pages. The number of pages does not change the price.
- To start a new page, put the cursor where the page should end and press Insert page break. It adds the marker
[PAGE_BREAK]to the text. The marker starts a new page wherever it stands and is never printed. A line under the page counts the page breaks. - Every page break adds a page and counts towards the limit.
- The letter is printed in black and white, on one side of A4 paper.
Paper styles
The paper style sets the typeface of the whole letter. The size of the text and the layout of the page are the same in all three styles.
- Formal
- A classic serif typeface.
- Casual
- A rounder serif typeface.
- Business
- A plain typeface without serifs.
Write with AI
Write with AI under the page drafts the text from a short description. If there is text already, the composer asks before it replaces it. Plans that include it: Postmaster. It gives up to 50 drafts an hour, counted apart from the email composer, and only a draft you got is counted. See the AI writer.
The posting day
- Now
- The letter goes to the print centre within the hour. It cannot be changed after you confirm.
- A later day
- Any day from tomorrow, up to 5 years ahead or as far as your plan schedules if that is less. Until 1 hour before posting you can still change the letter.
The posting day is the day FuturePostman hands the letter to the print centre, at 12:00 UTC. Printing and the post take more days after that. Choose a day well before the date that matters. See delivery options and countries.
Review and confirm
The dialog Ready to post? shows the envelope with the address and four facts: Posted on, Delivery, Letter with the number of pages and the paper style, and Cost with the credits you have left afterwards.
The note under them gives two deadlines for a scheduled letter: until when you can change it, and until when you can delete it. For a letter sent with Now it says that the letter goes to the print centre within the hour and cannot be changed after that.
- Keep editing closes the dialog without sending anything.
- Schedule letter or Send now stores the letter and takes the credits.
- Afterwards, View letter opens the page of the letter, where you follow it. Write another clears the composer.
If the price has changed since the dialog opened, nothing is stored and nothing is charged. The dialog shows the new price and asks you to confirm again.
Good to know
- While you write, the composer saves a draft in this browser and shows Draft saved. The draft is not stored in your account, so you do not find it on another device. Discard removes it for good.
- If you switch from Email to Paper letter with an empty page, the text you wrote for the email is copied over.
- The text, the address and a greeting or sign-off you typed are stored encrypted. See how letters are protected.
What can go wrong
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Complete the address to continue | A required address field is empty. Press Edit under To and fill it in. |
| Choose the country to see the price | No country is chosen. The field starts with the country of your profile address, or empty when your profile has none. Choose the country of the recipient. |
| Something in the letter needs fixing | The line under the message names the field and says whether it is missing, too long or not valid. Fix that field and press the button again. |
| A message that the letter is too long | The text has more than 10,000 characters, or the letter has more than 6 pages. Shorten the text or remove page breaks. |
| The price could not be fetched right now | The print centre gave no price. Nothing is charged. Try again in a moment. See credits and prices. |
| This date cannot be used | The line under the message says why, for example that the day is further ahead than your plan schedules. Pick another day. |
| The button says Buy credits | You have fewer credits than the letter costs. Buy credits and come back. Your draft stays in the composer. |
| The letter could not be saved | The line under the message says why, for example that your profile is incomplete or that tracked delivery does not exist for the country. Nothing was charged. |
| The preview could not be made. | Close the dialog and press Preview PDF again. |
Read next
- Write an address the print centre acceptsWhich 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.
- 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.
- What a paper letter costs in creditsA paper letter is paid with credits. How many depends on the destination country and the delivery option, and the composer shows the price before you confirm.
- 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.
- In the appWrite a paper letterOpen the composer.