The quality of the paper must be largely influenced by the purpose, as well as by the quantity of the letters to be written. A firm that sends out hundreds of thousands of form letters to sell a small retail article in the rural districts, will not use an expensive stock; it will use a cheaper quality of paper. If the form letter goes to business or professional men in the city, the quality of the paper will be determined accordingly. In every instance, stock should be selected which will meet the expectations of the recipient.
The fact that the recipient knows a form letter as such, largely nullifies its influence. A business man who sends out a large number of form letters a year claims that when he gets a reply beginning, "In response to your form letter," he knows that the effect of that letter is absolutely lost on a large percentage of this list who seldom or never bother to read such communications. And one of the distinguishing marks of such a letter is the poor quality of its paper.
Different grades of stationery may be used for the various departments. For inter-house or inter-department correspondence, an inexpensive paper is desirable. For many purposes, indeed, a low-priced stock is entirely permissible. But the higher the quality of paper, the more exclusive and personal that letter becomes, until, in the cases of executive heads of corporations, the stock used is of the best. One well-known corporation regularly uses six different grades of paper for its letters; one grade is engraved upon a thin bond of excellent quality and used by the president of the company when writing in his official capacity; another grade is engraved upon a good quality of linen paper and is used by the other officers, sales managers and heads of office departments when writing official letters to outside parties; when writing to officers or employees of their own concern, the same letterhead, lithographed on a less expensive grade of paper, is used; A fourth grade of bond paper is used by officers and department heads for their semi-official correspondence. The sixth grade is used only for personal letters of a social nature; it is of a high quality of linen stock, tinted. Thus, the size, shape and quality of the paper and letterhead in each instance is made to conform to the best business and social usages.
For business correspondence, custom allows but little leeway in the choice of paper. For print shops, advertising concerns, ink manufacturers, engravers, or paper manufacturers, stationery offers an opportunity to exploit their taste or products in an effective and legitimate manner. For most houses, however, a plain bond, linen, or the vellums and hand-made papers that are coming into favor, furnish the best letter paper.
Colors on correspondence paper are seldom used to good effect; the results are frequently glaring and cheap. When in doubt as to what tint to use in the paper stock, use white, which is always in good taste. Tinted stock is occasionally used to good advantage as a "firm color." In such cases all the correspondence of that house has a uniform tint, which thus acquires an advertising value in attracting attention to itself among a mass of other letters. Aside from this occasional and often doubtful advertising value, tinted stock tends toward the eccentric except in the cases of paper dealers, publishers, or printers who have a purpose in displaying typographical effects.
Many concerns use paper of various tints, each of which identifies the particular department from which it comes. Thus, white paper may mark the letters from the executive department, blue from the selling department, and brown from the manufacturing department. But, even in such cases, the colors are used ordinarily only for inter-house or inter-department communications.
The sheet should be of standard size; that is the letter sheet should be folded to fit exactly into the envelope that is used.
Only such paper stock should be selected as can hold ink readily. Never select a stock that is not entirely serviceable on a typewriting machine. Never sacrifice the practical to the eccentric in business stationery.
An inferior quality of stationery is sometimes accepted by the shrewd observer either as a deliberate act to economize or as an indication of poor taste or indifference. A man who gets an estimate, for example, written on cheap paper, may be led to believe that the man who skimps on letter paper is apt to skimp on his work. So long as the paper represents the sender, just so long will the sender be judged by it.
From a semi-business or social standpoint, stationery often plays an important role; many instances are recorded where a man's private note paper has been the means of eliminating his name from select, social lists. The lady who, in writing to an employment office for a butler, used her private stationery with the remark, "that is one more way of giving them to understand what sort of a butler I want," knew the effect produced by proper letter paper.