Guides & references.
The pieces our team links most often when quoting work — plus a glossary of the acronyms that show up in every quote.
Current postage rates for Marketing Mail, Nonprofit, EDDM, and First-Class presort.
Disclaimers, paid-for boxes, and top-two contributor formatting for 2026.
When saturation beats a list, and when it doesn't — by SoCal use case.
What to look for, what to ask, and what the bug actually means.
A plain-English guide to the Allied Printing Trades union bug.
How to sequence parent, staff, and senior audiences for measure passage.
Acronyms that show up in every quote
Small typographic mark printed on a piece showing it was produced in an Allied Printing Trades–affiliated shop.
Intelligent Mail barcode workflow that earns the deepest USPS automation discount and provides per-piece tracking.
USPS National Change of Address — required scrub for any mailing claiming presort discounts; we run it on every job.
Coding Accuracy Support System — USPS standard for validating and standardizing addresses to ZIP+4.
Business Mail Entry Unit — the USPS facility where bulk mail is inducted. We use Santa Ana, LA, San Bernardino, and Moreno Valley.
Every Door Direct Mail — saturation mail to every household on a carrier route at the lowest postage tier, no list required.
Production basics
- Where do I find paper and stock recommendations?
- Each service page (postcards, brochures, catalogs) lists the stocks we run by default. If you need a specific stock not listed, send us a sample or a spec and we'll quote it.
- Do you have downloadable templates?
- Yes — call or email and we'll send the InDesign or PDF template for your trim size, fold pattern, or USPS panel layout.
- What artwork format should I send?
- Press-ready PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 with 1/8" bleed, all fonts outlined or embedded, and CMYK color. We pre-flight every file and flag issues before plates make.
- Do you offer design templates for political mail?
- Yes. We maintain compliant FPPC disclaimer templates, top-two contributor boxes, and slate mail box layouts that drop into common postcard and self-mailer sizes.
Ready for a quote?
Send a few details and we'll have a price and timeline back to you within one business day.