Vol. 7 No. 4

Merlin makes proper mailpiece design mandatory

With the implementation of Merlin testing equipment - mailpiece design has become more important than ever.

Merlin stands for Mail Evaluation Readability Lookup Instrument. It was built for the USPS by Bell & Howell. Merlin takes the subjectivity away from mailpiece acceptance. It standardizes mailpieces so they can be processed through automated sorting equipment without a problem.

Merlin was designed to verify automated mailpieces. It scans for barcode readability. It measures mailpiece dimenstions, including height, width, thickness and aspect ratio. It checks the weight and piece count of a mailing plus other postal standards.

The biggest concern for mailpiece designers should be the placement of the address and barcode area. Pieces designed to the exact minimum postal specs, could fail the Merlin test. Here’s why...

• Trimming and folding of a printed piece could be off by just 1/16th of an inch, leaving insufficient space below the barcode
• Address/barcode placement can shift slightly during imaging, bringing a barcode too close to the mailpiece edge.
• The window on a standard #10 envelope leaves little room for error. There must be an 1/8th inch clearance all around the address/barcode. If the address shifts too close to the window, that piece will fail Merlin.

Failing a Merlin test will delay the mailing and increase the postage. Don’t gamble. Design for success. At A.M. Mailing we recommend leaving a 4 inch wide by 1-1/2 inch deep clear zone for the address and barcode. This allows for any production variations that might occur. We encourage our customers to send us a PDF proof. We’ll check it for design errors before it’s printed. For a copy of our addressing standards template, call 608-884-3452.