Computing desk
< December 8	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 9

Logorrhoeia

When the National Health Service sends out envelopes they have a stamp in the top right hand corner, the words "Private and Confidential" in the top left corner, and

"Addressee no longer at this address [] Please tick if applicable and return to sender "

in the bottom left corner. So far, so unexceptionable, but they also place the blue and white NHS logo in the bottom right corner. This, of course, makes the 64-character barcode which the post office's automatic sorting machines place there unreadable, leading to mail delays. Does any other organisation do this? 2A00:23C6:2417:3101:D84A:F7D6:9CCB:DD6C (talk) 19:52, 9 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure that sorting machines that may use red or infrared optical sensors can't read through blue? Philvoids (talk) 02:15, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not to leave a clear space in the IMb zone is identified here as the number one mail design mistake. Does the Royal Mail use the same system of 64-character barcodes? One cannot in general expect mailers based in one country to take account of all idiosyncratic rules of postal services in other countries. I do not know whether the USPS has made any efforts to have the Universal Postal Union adopt a policy of requiring a clear 12 cm by 1.6 cm bottom right corner zone on the address side of envelopes, but I don't think such a universal rule exists. --Lambiam 08:31, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Does the NHS send many letters through the American domestic post? DuncanHill (talk) 08:39, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

For business mail that is not already barcoded, the Royal Mail requires there is no print, graphics, patterning, window material or other marks in a "Route Codemark Clear Zone", which is in the bottom right corner.^[1] The Belgian and Dutch postal services also require a clear "index zone" for printing the sorting code of at least 140 mm by 20 mm in the bottom right corner. --Lambiam 09:43, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And strangely, the NHS guideline for envelope layout does indeed seem to violate the Royal Mail requirements, although it's hard to be sure since the image does not have measurements like the RM page. CodeTalker (talk) 19:11, 10 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming the width of the envelope is 240 mm, the height of the clear band in the NHS identity design is less than 10 mm, well below the 18 mm indicated by the RM template. --Lambiam 06:18, 11 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]