Every size below is a stock format we print day in and day out, in window or closed face. The specialty list after the grid covers announcements, legal sizes, and full custom conversions.
4.125" x 9.5" · closed face
The standard business envelope and the one that dominates business mail. A letter-size sheet folded in thirds fits it exactly, and it meets USPS automation requirements without modification.
Best for: letters, proposals, everyday correspondence.
4.125" x 9.5" · clear panel
The address prints once, on the document, and shows through the window, so the envelope never needs separate addressing. The workhorse of invoices and statements, with custom window placement available.
Best for: invoices, statements, document mailings.
3.875" x 8.875" · fits inside a #10
Sized to nest inside a #10 without folding, which is why it is the engine of every appeal and remittance package: the recipient pulls it out, drops in the reply, and sends it back.
Best for: reply envelopes, donation and payment returns.
3.625" x 6.5" · compact reply
The compact reply and remittance format. Smaller than a #9, it suits payment stubs and donation slips where the return piece is a card rather than a full sheet.
Best for: remittance programs, payment coupons.
6" x 9" · letter or flat
For booklets, brochures, and half-fold letters that should not fold down to #10 size. Depending on thickness it mails as a letter or a flat, and we flag which before you commit.
Best for: booklets, catalogs, half-fold letters.
9" x 12" · mails as a flat
Full-size documents travel unfolded: contracts, reports, and anything that should arrive flat. A printed 9x12 turns a plain mailer into a branded delivery that arrives looking like it matters.
Best for: contracts, reports, unfolded documents.
Those six are the staples, not the limit. The commercial range runs from the #6-3/4 up through #11, #12, and #14 for legal and oversized correspondence, plus 10x13 flats for documents with bulk. A-series announcement envelopes, A2 through A10, carry invitations, cards, and event mailings; their squarer proportions read as personal rather than transactional, and for nonprofit fundraising an A7 often outperforms a #10 for exactly that reason. Square envelopes are available too, with one honest caution: USPS treats them as nonmachinable, so they carry a postage surcharge.
Styles layer on top of size. Window or closed face is the first call. Then flap and seal: gummed or self-seal, with self-seal skipping the moisture step entirely. Then the interior: a security tint, in a standard crosshatch or a custom pattern matched to your brand colors, keeps statements, healthcare documents, and tax forms from being read through the paper. Stocks run from the 24lb white wove that is the industry default, through 28lb for a noticeably sturdier feel, to colored wove and kraft when the envelope itself should carry the brand.
And when the off-the-shelf range does not fit, envelopes can be converted: manufactured from flat sheets specifically for your order, which opens up custom sizes, window placements, flap styles, and papers not available in stock formats. Stock envelopes overprinted with your design are faster and more economical for standard sizes; conversion is the answer when the design demands a configuration the shelf does not hold.
One sizing rule worth knowing before you commit to a format: USPS prices by shape. A letter-size piece runs from 3.5 by 5 inches up to 6.125 by 11.5 inches, with length divided by height falling between 1.3 and 2.5; anything larger travels as a flat at a higher rate. The #10 sits comfortably inside those limits, which is part of why it dominates business mail, and it is the kind of check our prepress team runs on every envelope layout before it prints.