Registration of envelopes according to GOST
"Envelope - a flat rectangular shell made of paper or other similar material, closed with a sticky or self-adhesive flap located along one of its sides" GOST 51506-99
Our printing house often prints branded envelopes for various organizations. Which envelopes to choose and what to depict on them, everyone can decide for himself. Moreover, envelopes are used not only for sending by mail, but also in many other cases. However, if you are printing mailing envelopes, then it is useful to familiarize yourself with certain provisions of the State Standard of the Russian Federation or simply GOST 51506-99, which was developed by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Research and Design Institute of Postal Communication and adopted and put into effect by the Decree Gosstandart of Russia dated December 23, 1999 No. 691-st.
Sizes and types of envelopes
Of the variety of envelopes on the market today, only a limited part of them are suitable for mailing. GOST 51506-99 recognizes only envelopes of the following sizes suitable for this purpose:
Envelopes with dimensions 114 X 162 mm (C6), 110 X 220 mm (DL), 162 X 229 mm (C5) can be made with windows in place of the addressee's address zone, and are designated: C6 / O; DL/O; C5/O.
- Depending on the location of the closing valve, envelopes are divided into two types:
- B - envelopes with a lateral flap, in which the fold of the flap coincides with the lateral (short) left edge of the envelope relative to its front side;
- B - envelopes with a top flap, in which the fold of the flap coincides with the upper (long) edge of the envelope relative to its front side.
Envelope front design
The most important thing to remember is that today the sender's address is written in the upper left corner of the envelope, and the recipient's address is written in the lower right. This arrangement is somewhat different from that used for a long time in our country and has become familiar to many. A new variant has been introduced for greater consistency with postal services in other countries.
The general design of the envelope according to GOST must be carried out in accordance with the following figure:
The dimensions indicated in the figure by letters c depend on the type of envelope and are indicated in the following table:
| Size designation | Envelope designation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C6 | DL | C5 | C4 | B4 | |
| H/L | 114/162 | 110/220 | 162/229 | 229/324 | 250/353 |
| H1 | 75 | 75 | 120 | 180 | 200 |
| H2 | 58,5 | 60,5 | 90 | 145 | 165 |
| H3 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| H4 | 6,5 | 6,5 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| H5 | 19,5 | 13 | 19,5 | 19,5 | 19,5 |
| L1 | 147 | 205 | 204 | 290 | 320 |
| L2 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| L3 | 66 | 95 | 100 | 170 | 190 |
| L4 | 70 | 95 | 100 | 120 | 120 |
| L5 | 66 | 80 | 85 | 120 | 120 |
| L6 | 5 | 20 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| L7 | 35 | 35 | 40 | 50 | 50 |
| L8 | 30 | 30 | 35 | 50 | 50 |
Please note that all envelopes have three lines in the return address, except for the DL envelope (110x220) which has two lines.
Printing lines in the address area of the recipient is allowed only in red, cyan, blue or purple. It is allowed to display the listed lines in the form of dots of black or any other color with a diameter of (0.25 ± 0.05) mm with an interval of 1 to 1.5 mm with a tolerance of ± 0.1 mm.
The text on envelopes with dimensions of 114x162 mm and 110x220 mm is printed in font: "To", "Where", "From whom", "From", "Sender's address" - size 8, in italics; "Destination index", "Departure index" - size 6, in italics; "Sample of writing index numbers" - size 8, in italics.
The color of printing the words "To", "Where", "From whom", "From", "Departure place index", "Sender's address" - arbitrary. The printing color of the words "Destination Index" is allowed only in red, cyan, blue or purple. It is allowed to use black color with a raster of no more than 60%.
The text on the front side of envelopes with dimensions of 162x229 mm, 229x324 mm, 250x353 mm is printed in font: “To”, “Where”, “From whom”, “From where” - size 12, in italics; "Destination index", "Departure index" - size 8, in italics. Color of the press - any, saturated tones.
Formatting fields for the index
The GOST also establishes the dimensions that must be observed when printing the field for the index:
Conclusion
GOST 51506-99 is intended primarily for manufacturers of postal envelopes. Therefore, it may not be particularly necessary to adhere to all of its requirements when printing an organization's own branded envelopes. Moreover, the post office also accepts blank envelopes with an address and an index filled in by hand, as long as a stamp of the desired value is glued. But for mass mailing, it is better, of course, to make the envelope as suitable for automatic processing as possible, which is possible if all the requirements of the standard are met.
