Position of the address on the envelope

The Letter Post Regulations article RL 128 defines specific dimensional requirements for address placement on envelopes, crucial for efficient postal processing. The addressee's address area must be positioned at least 15 mm from the right and bottom edges, and at least 40 mm (with a 2 mm tolerance) from the top edge, extending no more than 140 mm from the right-hand edge. These precise measurements ensure rapid optical reading and facilitate manual sorting and delivery by postal services.

Adherence to these Universal Postal Union (UPU) standards prevents interference with indexing, coding, and address detection areas, which must remain blank. While individual countries may adapt these values, they must maintain a minimum address area width of 74 mm. Proper placement avoids extraneous markings to the right, below, or within a 15 mm wide area to the left of the address, extending from the first line to the bottom edge, and a 15 mm high by 140 mm long area from the bottom-right corner.