Letterhead Maker

What a letterhead should include

A letterhead tells the reader who the letter is from and how to reach you, before they read a single line of the letter. For most businesses and offices, that means a short, fixed set of details:

• The legal or registered name, written exactly as it appears on your registration certificate. If your trading name differs, put the trading name in the large line and the legal name in the second line.
• A full postal address: tole or street, ward number where relevant, municipality, district and province. Customers and government offices still send paper mail here.
• At least one phone number and an email address. A website is optional but useful.
• Registration details. In many countries, offices and suppliers expect the company registration number and the tax or VAT number on official letters, quotations and tenders, because they are used to check the sender.
• Your logo, if you have one.

Bank account numbers, long lists of services and social media handles are better left out. They date quickly, crowd the design and make every letter look like an advertisement.

Choosing a template

The 50 templates are grouped by style. Classic and Elegant designs suit law firms, consultancies, hotels and established family businesses. Corporate and Modern designs suit trading companies, IT firms and agencies. Office designs follow the layout many government and semi-government offices use, with the emblem on the left, centered office name lines and fill-in lines for the letter number, dispatch number and date. School and NGO designs leave room for a motto and registration details.

Look at the full page, not just the header. A heavy color band at the top and bottom looks striking on screen, but it uses a lot of ink on every letter and needs a printer that can print close to the edge. If you will print letters on an office laser printer every day, a design with a thin rule and small accents is more practical. If you plan to get letterhead paper printed in bulk at a press, the bold designs work well.

Logo tips

A PNG file with a transparent background gives the cleanest result, because the logo sits directly on the paper or on a colored band. JPG logos with a white background also work: the tool trims empty white margins automatically, and on dark bands the logo is placed on a small white panel so it stays readable.

• Use the largest version of the logo you have. A logo saved from WhatsApp or a social media profile is usually too small and will look soft in print.
• An SVG file from your designer is converted at high resolution, so it prints sharply.
• Wide logos with the company name built in work best with templates that place the logo on its own, such as Northline, Summit or Folio. If the logo already contains your name, consider whether you still need the large name line.
• Use the Logo size slider rather than editing the image. Each template keeps the text aligned to the logo as it grows or shrinks.

If you do not have a logo yet, the tool draws a monogram from your initials in a style that matches each template. You can type your own letters in the Monogram letters field, up to three.

Using the Word file

The Word download is the most useful format for day-to-day letters. The design is placed in the page header and footer, and the page margins are set so typing starts just below the header and stops above the footer. To write a letter:

1. Open the .docx file in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer or WPS Office.
2. Click in the body and type as you would on any page. If you chose the Ref. No. and Date option, the fill-in line is already at the top.
3. When the letter runs onto a second page, the design repeats automatically. Untick Repeat the design on every page before downloading if you want it on the first page only.
4. Save the file under a new name for each letter, and keep the original as your blank template.
5. To send the letter by email, use File, Save As or Export, and choose PDF. The letterhead is kept exactly as it looks on screen.

The design is an image in the header, so it cannot be edited by accident while typing. To change a phone number later, update the details here and download a new file. The header images reach the edges of the page; Word shows them fully, and how much reaches the paper edge depends on your printer.

Printing letterhead paper

For printing in bulk, download the PDF. It is one page at the exact paper size with the design at 300 DPI, which is what print shops expect. Choose Blank letterhead for printing, so the paper can be used for any letter, typed or handwritten.

• Paper: 80 gsm A4 is normal office paper. 90 or 100 gsm bond paper feels noticeably better in the hand and is common for letterheads, and it still feeds through office printers.
• Color: a print shop with a digital color machine will print the design edge to edge on larger sheets and trim them to A4. This is the right choice for templates with color bands, side bars or corner shapes.
• Office printers usually leave a white edge of 3 to 5 mm on each side. Designs that keep color away from the edges, such as Heritage, Registry, Hairline or Laurel, print cleanly on any printer.
• Always print at 100% or Actual size. Fit to page shrinks the design and shifts the margins.
• Print one test sheet first and check it in daylight. Colors on paper are usually a little darker than on a screen.

If you print letters on pre-printed letterhead paper later, use the Word file with the header and footer images removed, or print a test page to check that your typed text lines up with the printed design.

Keeping your stationery consistent

A letterhead is part of a set with your visiting card, envelope, invoice and stamp. Readers notice when these do not match. Use the same logo file, the same spelling of your name and the same phone numbers everywhere, and pick colors once and keep them. In the Design tab you can enter exact colors, so if your logo uses particular shades, type their hex codes there and use the same codes on your visiting cards.

Keep fonts consistent as well. The Font option changes the font of the organization name in every template, which helps when your brand already uses one of the available fonts.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Spelling mistakes in the name or address. Read every line aloud before printing hundreds of copies.
• Old phone numbers. A letterhead with a number that no longer works is worse than one with no number at all.
• Too many details. If the footer needs three lines to fit everything, remove something.
• A blurry logo. Ask your designer for the original file instead of using a screenshot.
• Light colors for text. Pale yellow or light grey text is hard to read and may disappear on photocopies. The tool darkens colors that are too light for text, but strong colors work best.
• Mixing paper sizes. Use A4 throughout if your office works in A4, otherwise margins shift when letters are printed.

A4 or US Letter

Choose the paper size before downloading. Every template adjusts its layout to the page.

If you send letters to clients in the United States, you can still use A4. It prints on Letter paper with slightly smaller margins at the top and bottom.