Hand calligraphy & post office don't mix?

[shootingstar]

I'm abit bummed out...I am certain the post office must have different technology or a different sorting process now for letter mail where the envelope address is done in hand (Western) calligraphy.

I've done handful of snail mail Christmas cards..in my own hand calligraphy. And have done it for past 15 Christmases. Sorry, email doesn't work as much in our family because not everyone in family has a computer and now, living thousands of kms. away, actually family members appreciate a real card vs. something they can delete from the computer (or yet waste more ink printing it off. Who would?)

After mailing out 2-3 wks. in advance, still some (or all) of these cards have not yet been received. In past years, people have received their cards within 7 days.

Sorry, I handwrite in large nearly 3/4" high letters with rounded script, no curlicues. No, difficult-to-read ye-olde-English Gothic script. I made sure the postal code was a simple, straightforward style.

Have to say that in the push for technological efficiency, that sometimes art/hand-done falls down and gets pushed aside.

And please do not tell me that there are computer fonts that mimic calligraphy. I actually never use them for any electronic signature...if I use calligraphic signature, I hand-write mine in calligraphy for real. I took several hand calligraphy courses. Some of that knowledge is transferrable for how to select font styles for legibility, compatability for 2 related font styles and simple graphics layout.

When in the past I have given gifts of hand-done steel nib inked calligraphic cards and posters.

So am not sure if people will get those cards.

[bmccasland]

Shootingstar - That's terrible that your cards seem to be lost in the mail. I think most mail is now sorted by optical scanners, and not by people, so plain and simple, especially during high volumne times of the year is probably the best. On the other hand, they could just be stuck in a slow boat, or on a slow plane.

[sarahspins]

A few years ago, I had some postcard style Christmas cards printed, and and hand wrote the addresses on the cards.. and the PO machinery sorted every dang one of them back to my "from" address since it was more easily read by the machines, despite the fact that it was tiny and the hand-written "TO" addresses were large and very legible, and very obvious to any human.

I was ticked... because I had sent out nearly 100 cards that year. I had no luck even getting the PO to refund my postage.. ultimately I put every card in an envelope and paid more to send them. I was not a happy postal customer.

What's even stupider is that not all of them came back right away - they seemed to come back in batches over about a week, starting the day after they were originally mailed.

[Irulan]

I was going to say... what do you expect, I think the USPS is one of the most inefficient services out there... but then I saw you were in Canada....Sorry to hear that your stuff didn't get through, seems very strange...

[Grog]

Maybe you hit a bad mailbox?

As far as we know, pretty much everything we sent this year has made it. I was not particularly careful in addressing them either.

However post mail was very slow. I had a package that should have been in by December 15th that arrived on the 23rd. (At least it was in for Christmas!) The Holidays are a terribly busy season, and packages are a priority compared to letter mail I think...

I hope all of your wishes make it before the New Year.

[shootingstar]

Don't know. And some of the addressed snail mail, were actually small gift packages....substantively more costly to mail.

Sarah--I didn't put a return address. I'm disgusted by what the P.O. did for your situation. Just stupid especially when you gave the return address.

Yes, illegibility now= hand crafted calligraphy that can be clear, BIG (if chosen style is good) and takes 3x times more effort.

It is the equivalent of saying sewn garment is always worse than mass manufactured garment. Poppycock.

In case, people don't really understand calligraphy and calligraphic art:
http://www.omniglot.com/gallery/call...ex.php?start=1

http://www.omniglot.com/gallery/index.htm

http://calligraphersguild.org/julian.html

[blackhillsbiker]

I work in a print shop. Every year we get more and more postal regs for envelopes/postcards/packages. We've even taken to sending a PDF of the mailing side of a piece to the local postal resource person for pre-approval before we print, so our customers don't run into trouble with large mailings. It has gotten really ridiculous. I do calligraphy as well. I finally knuckled under and address the outside in block print in black Sharpie. Sigh.

Deb

[Trek420]

Hand calligraphy is a wonderful art if you can do it (or know someone who can). So's typography, using and choosing the perfect font.

If I was mailing something using calligraphy I'd find a type-face that compliments it and use that on the to/from address.

I would never leave off a return address at least knowingly. I'm sure I've forgotten sometimes.

Sadly at this time lots of places will not take a letter/package with no return address.

Leave your craft for the inside, perhaps a hint such as a word or decorative flourish on the outside or the back. Better to do that then risk your card, wedding invite, toddler's birthday party invite ..... get lost in the mail.

No design is amazing if it does not work; the advert with a wrong number, the colors chosen that conflict horridly, the poster specs delivered to the printer the night of the deadline and their building burns down (been there, done it all, especially the printer building that burned down).

Sorry about all the hard work you did and it did not go through the mail or not delivered yet. I'm sure that's discouraging. It may turn up yet and I'm sure the recipients will be pleased.

Trek ~ CCA Graphic Design major ~ 420

[evangundy]

I'm sorry your letters/cards/packages have not been delivered yet.

I had a friend who worked for the Post Office a couple years ago, and I was told by her, that the mail first goes thru machines that read the addresses optically. The system looks for very simple easy to read lettering. (It really prefers simple font machine printed addresses and it prefers the address in a certain position on the envelope. If the return address is lower on the envelope than it should be, the scanner thinks thats the mail-to address) It pushes thru what it recognizes and spits the others out for hand-sorting. During the holidays, when mail volume is higher, and during this economy of using fewer and fewer manual hands to do the work, the hand-sorting sometimes got backed up at least 2-3 weeks behind.

So for the past couple years, I hand write notes inside my cards, letters, even bill payments, but use computer created printed labels for the outside. And the preprinted return address labels. I've had much less mail delivered late. Some still is, but much less.

[badgercat]

I'm sorry to hear about your lost hard work. Hopefully it will turn up.

Do you have any sort of confirmation that it was because of the calligraphy? As someone else mentioned, maybe there was a problem at the place where you posted them. Or an honest mistake of insufficient postage, if you mailed them yourself with stamps rather than taking to a post office? I'm not sure how the Canadian post works, if they would return to sender in that case or forward it on anyway with a envelope request to make up the postage (this has happened with a package from my boyfriend's mom that she accidentally shorted by $0.50).

I'm genuinely curious why you chose not to include a return address. That's something that was beaten into my head by my mom, so I can't imagine ever not including it.

Of course, the postal service is not perfect, but I'm still amazed that I can send a letter across the country in a few days for less than half a dollar. Also, my uncle is a long-time USPS letter carrier, and seeing how hard he works I've found that I tend to have a little more sympathy for the postal service than many others do.

[shootingstar]

I'm genuinely curious why you chose not to include a return address. That's something that was beaten into my head by my mom, so I can't imagine ever not including it.

Of course, the postal service is not perfect, but I'm still amazed that I can send a letter across the country in a few days for less than half a dollar. Also, my uncle is a long-time USPS letter carrier, and seeing how hard he works I've found that I tend to have a little more sympathy for the postal service than many others do.

Just lazy, I normally do write the return address. That still is not an excuse to hand sort the mail with large, clearly written addressed envelope/pkg. front.

As for the letter carriers that deliver from door to door, I'm sure most work hard. Those sacks are heavy and am glad there are more ergonomic packs with padded straps for them to carry the letters. And still dealing with dogs, unshovelled walks, etc. These workers are further removed from the operations of inside workers at post office. (Evenlyn, this is just an observation. Wonder what the policies are for handsorting, if any.)

My prediction within next 25 yrs., hand calligraphy & calligraphic arts will reappear in greater vengeance but maybe in a nouveau art or media form..since handwritten stuff as an art, is becoming increasingly lost to mass-produced computer fonts and children learn less and less on cursive writing or handwriting in general. As you can tell, I really appreciate viewing art gallery exhibits with this stuff. At the British Museum, in the manuscript rm., I was in heaven. WHen getting into the groove of doing calligraphy, it is abit like cycling...one falls into a trance. So much that have occasionally fallen in love with executing the letter shapes that I spelled the word wrong!

Ok, am sounding artsy. But that's what it is in the end-- an art And why would I do it still for family, etc.? Am an artshead/art dabbler in the family, so it has meaning to them --back to the kid playing with paints, dreaming up poetry. THat's all.

Meanwhile Trek's idea is good one, suggest in calligraphic design on envelope, etc.. Meanwhile have to track this year's stuff for next few wks.

[salsabike]

Of course, the postal service is not perfect, but I'm still amazed that I can send a letter across the country in a few days for less than half a dollar.

Actually, I think the USPS does an incredibly good, prompt, and reliable job for not a ton of money on our parts.

[Trek420]

Actually, I think the USPS does an incredibly good, prompt, and reliable job for not a ton of money on our parts.

+1.

As for the letter carriers hard work vs those inside the sorting room; I'm just a tiny teeny cog in a big company but I volunteer on the safety committee in our building. A big surprise to me was finding out not only the huge number of on the job injuries but who gets them most.

My thought is that would be technicians, the folks climbing ladders and such. Nope. It's us office workers that get hurt the most particularly ergonomic issues especially repetitive stress. Carpal tunnel and repetitive stress are very painful and crippling. I'm sure some of those workers would rather face a dog than sort thousands of letters a day by hand.

I once had my day minder stolen out of a back pack slung casually on my chair in a coffee shop. The thief took the day minder which had a little cash stuck in a pocket, but also all of my id etc He must have grabbed the cash and tossed it into a nearby mailbox.

A few weeks later I got an envelope with the dayminder, they'd figured out who and where I was, got it all back but the $20.00.

[Irulan]

well, I wish I could agree with the above, but I sure don't. We have two significant home businesses, and the amount of mis-delivered mail ( our incoming getting delivered elsewhere, and no we don't have a weird address) is disturbing. Especially when it's incoming payments. I will spare you my laundry list of complaints but I have real, consistent problems with USPS.

[redrhodie]

well, I wish I could agree with the above, but I sure don't. I will spare you my laundry list of complaints but I have real, consistent problems with USPS.

Me too.

I can report that they have paid insurance claims on stolen packages, but it's not fun to deal with.