The short answer is "probably not"
-- for normal outgoing mail (i.e., not specially designed "business
reply" or "bulk" mail, or mail that is not specially
pre-sorted). But see below.
There has been a lot of discussion over the
past few years on various Corel news groups, Compuserve forums,
and elsewhere about whether bar codes help speed individually
mailed letters (in contrast to bulk mail -- trays of business
reply mail and courtesy reply mail).
In any case, among other requirements it seems
bar-coded envelopes may need a Facing Identification Mark
(FIM) -- the vertical alignment marks you see on commercial return
envelopes at the top of the envelope near the postage stamp area.
Otherwise Post Office equipment may be "blind" to the
user-entered bar code.
Update (03/02/07) -
From the United States Postal Service
at http://www.usps.com/businessmail101/misc/discountsBarcoded.htm
-
"Barcoding your mail may entitle you
to a lower postage rate, but ONLY if all the other requirements
for automation postage rates are met. A barcode alone will NOT
qualify your mail for automation rates.
In general, the Postal Service recommends
that, unless you are preparing a mailing for automation rates,
you should NOT put barcodes on the mailpieces. As long as the mailing address is correct, your mail
will still be processed efficiently without a barcode—and
you won’t need to worry about having the wrong barcode on
your mail. A bad (incorrect) barcode is much worse than no barcode
at all. A bad barcode can cause your mailpiece to travel to the
wrong destination. ..."
|
If you still think you need them:
Update (08/24/05) -
Here's a quote from the United States Postal
Service Publication 25, March 2001, pp53-55 (http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/pubs/Pub25/pub25.pdf):
Description
The facing identification mark (FIM) is a pattern of vertical
bars printed in the
upper right portion of a mailpiece, to the left of the postage
area. A FIM pattern
is essentially a nine-bit code consisting of bars and no-bar
placeholders. The
presence of a bar can be considered a binary "1" (one);
the absence of a bar, a
binary "0" (zero).
The FIM patterns currently used translate
into these binary codes:
FIM A: 110010011
FIM B: 101101101
FIM C: 110101011
FIM D: 111010111
Use
Determine which FIM to use (see Exhibit 5-3) as follows:
FIM A is used for CRM [Courtesy Reply Mail] and MRM
[Metered Reply Mail] with a preprinted barcode.
FIM
B is used for BRM [Business Reply Mail] without a preprinted
BRM ZIP+4 barcode.
FIM C is used for BRM with
a preprinted BRM ZIP+4 barcode.
FIM D is used
only with information based indicia (IBI) postage.
Purpose
The FIM uses a code that tells automated processing equipment
some of what it
needs to know to do its job. The FIM allows automatic facing
(orientation) of the
mail for cancellation (postmarking). The FIM also identifies
reply mail that bears
a preprinted barcode. Barcoded mail is then routed directly to
a high-speed
barcode sorter, bypassing slower manual sorting or optical character
reader
(OCR) processing.
FIM Standards
Make sure the FIM meets the following standards:
The
FIM clear zone must contain no printing other than the FIM pattern.
Exhibit 5-4 shows the configuration of the clear
zone and the correct location
of the FIM.
The rightmost bar of the FIM must
be 2 inches ± 1 /8 inch from the right edge of
each mailpiece.
The FIM bars must be 5 /8 inch
high ± 1 /8 inch and 1 /32 inch wide ±0.008 inch.
The tops of the FIM bars must be no lower
than 1 /8 inch from the top edge of
each mailpiece. They may extend over the top edge to the flap.
The bottoms of the FIM bars should touch the bottom edge of the
FIM clear
zone but must not be more than 1 /8 inch above or below that
edge. [Italics
mine. The non-printable area for most printers -- which,
for most lasers, is 1/4 inches -- means a FIM that is added by
your printer probably will be too low!] ...
And so forth and so on. Doesn't look too useful
for the average piece of personal or business mail, does it?
I've tested sending ordinary letters across
town and across country -- with bar codes and without (but not
with a FIM-A mark), and with codes placed above as well as below
the mailing address -- and haven't seen any significant difference.
So I don't use them -- but your experience may be different.
If you want to print a FIM-A mark, you could use the macro in the footnote
at the bottom of this web page.
Update (11/14/03) - Jack Waananen, Corel C_Tech, reports:
The barcode feature is useful if a mailer
delivers the envelopes to the USPS
already "faced" (oriented in one direction) in first-class
trays or bulk-mail bundles -- presorted by zip code.
For individual envelopes tossed into the mix with other mail,
the barcode without the FIM (Facing Identification Mark) is not
useful.
Update (04/04/02) - For more information see the US Postal Service site
at http://www.usps.com/ (enter
"Publications" in the Search field) or get Publication
25, "Designing Letter and Reply Mail," a 4MB (PDF)
file directly downloadable from the USPS site at http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/pubs/Pub25/pub25.pdf.
It contains information on automation, POSTNET bar codes, FIM
marks, etc.
Update (1/21/00) - From the Bizfonts
site: "... The FIM (Facing Identification Mark) font is
a special font used by the US Post Office to separate Business
Reply Mail from other mail. The FIM font consists of four
unique bar codes; each bar code represents a unique reply
mail classification as defined in the graphic image above....
"
Here's a snippet from a page from Corel's
Knowledge Base relating
to WPWin6 but should apply to all versions of WPWin:
"POSTNET Barcode And WordPerfect Software
DocumentID: 632828
Revision Date: 2/29/96 3:03:06 PM
The information in this document applies to:
WordPerfect® 6.0 for Windows®
...POSTNET barcodes are one of the requirements
for postal discounts....There are a number of factors beyond
the certified software and printers that are required to gain
postal discounts. The Bulk Mail Entry Unit is the department
at the post office where mail is taken that qualifies for any
bulk mail discounts. Again, contact your local postal representative
for details.
The postal service will
not use the POSTNET barcode to route the postal piece if it does
not have a Facing Identification Mark (FIM). [Italics mine.] A FIM is a set of graphics lines
located to the left of the postage stamp. Common postal pieces
that use FIMs are business reply cards. (FIMs are used on other
postal pieces as well.) If the postal equipment finds a FIM (with
stamped mail), the postal piece is routed through cancellation
equipment, then sent to a POSTNET barcode reader. If no FIM is
found, the postal piece is routed to an Optical Character Reader
(OCR) where the address block is read from the bottom up. Postal
equipment sprays a POSTNET bar code in the lower right corner
of the postal piece. (This is why a postal piece may have two
POSTNET bar codes.)
Metered letters do not go through cancellation
equipment. The meter date is considered a cancellation. All metered
letters (unless mail is entered at the Bulk Mail Entry Unit)
is put on the OCR for processing.
The POSTNET barcode can be placed in three
different locations. The preferred location is in the lower right
corner of the envelope. The second best position is above the
address block, and the third option is below the address block.
If no FIM is found on the envelope and a POSTNET barcode is used,
it should be placed above the address block. The OCR reader reads
the address from the bottom up. If the mail piece does go to
the OCR and another barcode needs to be sprayed on the mail piece,
it will be placed in the lower right corner.
The POSTNET barcode should be 11 digits. (Check
with your Postal Representative for information about how to
identify the last two digits. Basically, they are the last two
numbers of the primary street address, such as 55 for 1555 Technology
Way.) The ZIP Code in the address block should be the ZIP or
ZIP+4. The tenth and eleventh digits should not be included in
the address block. These last two digits must be entered manually
since WordPerfect software does not identify and automatically
add the last two numbers of the primary street address in the
barcode field. It is recommended to use one field for the ZIP+4
and another for the 11 digit POSTNET barcode when using a WordPerfect
Data Merge file or a DataPerfect database.
The address block should:
Print within a certain area (defined as the OCR read area on
Notice 67 template)
1. Use a readable font for the optical reader (San Serif fonts,
see Publication 25, Table 2, page 25)
2. Be all uppercase
3. Have no punctuation (A hyphen "-" is not considered
punctuation and therefore can be part of the address block where
appropriate.)
4. Use standard abbreviations (see Publication 28, Appendix F,
pages 73- 74).
Those who are interested in specific information
should contact their local postal representative. Publications
25 and 28 are free items....
Here is a snippet from a public message on
a Compuserve forum:
"...Most of the time unbundled mail (i.e.
first class mail not already in trays) goes through the machinery
to add the postnet codes anyway, even if already on the envelope.
Envelopes with FIMs are rerouted but those without are not. The
operator, who has his headphones cranked up and is working by
autopilot, will key in the barcode information automatically,
even if the envelope already has it.
So, my understanding is that it is not worth the effort to barcode
letters if (1) they do not have FIMs and (2) they are not in
trays (minimum 200 pieces)."
And another from a Corel newsgroup:
"... Also note that bar codes are really
only useful on faced mail in first-class trays (i.e. mail placed
in the USPS trays all facing the same direction) that can bypass
the encoding process OR on unfaced (random envelopes) that have
facing marks -- the vertical lines to the left of the stamp that
you see, for example, on your utility company return envelopes.
In other words, bar codes on random envelopes
without facing marks are not useful. Mail one to yourself and
you will see that the USPS has added their own bar code at the
bottom...."
Stay tuned....
Barry MacDonnell's