Business Stationery
For the usual type of business letter, a single large sheet of white paper, unruled, of the standard business size, 8½ x 11 inches, is generally used. The standard envelopes are 6½ x 3½ inches and 10 x 4½, the former requiring three folds of the letter (one across and two lengthwise) and the latter requiring two folds (across). The former size, 6½ x 3½, is much preferred. The latter is useful in the case of bulky enclosures.
Bond of a good quality is probably the best choice. Colored papers, while attracting attention in a pile of miscellaneous correspondence, are not in the best taste. Rather have the letter striking for its excellent typing and arrangement.
Department stores and firms that write a great many letters to women often employ a notepaper size sheet for these letters. On this much smaller sheet the elite type makes a better appearance with letters of this kind.
Department stores and firms that write many letters to women often employ a notepaper size
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Specimens of stationery used by men for personal business letters
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The letterhead may be printed, engraved, or lithographed, and it is safest done in black. It should cover considerably less than a quarter of the page. It contains the name of the firm, the address, and the business. The addresses of branch houses, telephone numbers, cable addresses, names of officials, and other data may be included. But all flamboyant, colored advertisements, trade slogans, or advertising matter extending down the sides of the letter detract from the actual content of the letter, which it is presumed is the essential part of the letter.
For personal business letters, that is, for letters not social but concerning personal affairs not directly connected with his business, a man often uses a letter sheet partaking more of the nature of social stationery than of business. This sheet is usually rather smaller than the standard business size and of heavier quality. The size and shape of these letter sheets are matters of personal preference—7 x 10 inches or 8 x 10 inches—sometimes even as large as the standard 8½ x 11 or as small as 5½ x 8½ or 6 x 8. The smaller size, however, requires the double sheet, and the engraving may be done on the fourth page instead of the first. The inside address in these letters is generally placed at the end of the letters instead of above the salutation.
Instead of a business letterhead the sheet may have an engraved name and home or business address without any further business connotations, or it may be simply an address line.