Correspondence sets
Cards, lined envelopes and a wrap, boxed.
A correspondence set is a box of cards and envelopes printed for one person, or one household, or one shop, in one ink, to be used up over a year of letters. It is the job we most enjoy printing, because it is used rather than kept, and it goes out of the shop looking like a thing rather than a stack.
What is in a set
Twenty-five flat cards on the double-thick cotton sheet, printed in one ink with a name, a monogram or a small mark at the head of the card. Twenty-five envelopes to match, lined if you choose, with a return address printed on the flap in the same ink. A paper wrap around the cards, printed with the same mark, that holds them square in the box. And a two-piece rigid box with a plain lid and a small printed label on one end. Larger sets are two or four of those boxes rather than one deeper box, because a deep stack of cotton cards bows.
How it is boxed
The box is a rigid two-piece case covered in a plain paper, with a tissue lining. Cards go in first, wrapped; envelopes go in on top, flaps down, in a second wrap. The label on the end of the box is printed on the press in the same run as the cards, so it matches. We do not print on the lid itself; the box paper does not take letterpress well and the lid is the surface that gets handled most. A box holds one set. We do not make a box that holds two sizes of card, because the smaller card then slides.
The card in the set
The cards in a set are flat, not folded, in the A2 or A6 size. Flat cards are what a set is for: a short note, both sides, no fold to fight with at the desk. The mark sits centered at the head or set to the left, and a rule under it is possible in the same ink. The card is otherwise blank. If you want a folded card, order notecards instead; the box, the wrap and the envelope liner are what make this a set, and they are made for the flat card.
Envelope sizes and lining
The envelope matches the card: A2 for the A2 card, A6 for the A6. Both come with a square flap or a pointed flap, in the same white or natural as the card stock. The pointed flap suits a liner best, because it shows more of the lining paper when the envelope is opened.
A lined envelope has a second paper cut to the shape of the flap and the inside of the envelope, glued along the fold of the flap only, so that the liner lifts with the flap. We cut liners from a small range of plain papers in solid colors that sit well with the six house inks. A liner cannot be printed; it is a plain sheet, chosen to answer the ink.
How the liner is fitted
Liners are cut by hand from a template for each envelope size, then glued with a paste that dries flat and does not cockle the paper. Each envelope is lined one at a time, which is why a lined set adds a week to the schedule. The liner is the one part of the set that is neither printed nor pressed, and it is the part people notice first when the envelope is opened.
What can be changed for a set
- The ink: any of the six house inks, or a mixed color from your swatch.
- The stock: white or natural cotton, double-thick.
- The mark: a name, a monogram, a small drawn mark or a short line, from your artwork.
- The liner color, or no liner.
- The return address on the flap, or a plain flap.
- The count: one, two or four boxes.
What cannot
- The card sizes: A2 or A6, flat, and nothing else in a set.
- The box: one size per card, plain lid, printed end label; no printing on the lid.
- A second color in a set. Sets are one ink; the mark is small and a second pass adds more risk than it adds.
- A liner that is printed, patterned or photographic.
- The paper of the envelope, which must match the card so the set reads as one.
Lead times, in words
The proof for a set takes about a week to reach you after the artwork and ink are settled, because we pull the card and the envelope flap together on one sheet so you see both in one post. From an approved proof, a set in one ink with plain envelopes takes about four weeks. A lined set takes about five. Two or four boxes of the same design take the same time as one, because the run is set once; two different designs are two jobs and run one after the other.
We do not print same-day or overnight, and there is no fast lane for a set that is a gift with a date attached. If the date is fixed, write to us early: the reply will say plainly whether the schedule reaches it, and we would rather say no in the first message than miss a birthday with a box of cards.
Finished sets are collected from the shop or sent in a rigid outer carton within the United States. Two boxes travel in one carton; four travel in two.
A reprint of a set
The plate is kept, and the ink mix is kept in its tin, so a second set of the same design is quicker to start than the first. It still goes through a proof, because paper batches vary and the color may have drifted a shade, and you should see the new card before fifty more are printed to match it.