LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
A letterhead is the printed name, address, and contact details at the top of a letter, and most personal letters do not need one. Plain paper works fine for everyday mail, while a letterhead helps a business, charity, or professional practice look consistent and easy to reach when the letter itself carries weight.
| Part of a letterhead | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name or organisation name | Tells the reader who is writing at a glance |
| Street address | Gives a place to reply by post |
| Phone and email | Offers a faster way to answer |
| Logo or mark, if any | Helps the reader recognise repeat mail |
A letterhead is the block at the top of the first page of a letter. At its simplest, it holds a name and an address. A business version adds a phone number, an email address, and often a logo. The letter itself starts below that block, usually with the date, then the recipient's address, then the greeting. Only the first page carries the full letterhead; later pages normally carry just a short header, such as the sender's name and a page number, or nothing at all.
The idea is older than printed stationery. Before printing was cheap, firms stamped or engraved their names on paper to show a letter was genuine. That history still shapes how readers judge a letterhead today: it signals that the sender is an organisation with a fixed address, not a passing note. For a personal letter, that signal is rarely needed, which is why plain paper remains normal for friends, family, and many complaints.
No, in almost every case. A personal letter needs your name and return address, a date, and a clear message. Those facts can sit in the top left of the page in plain type and do the same job as a designed letterhead. Adding a fancy header to a complaint letter does not make the complaint stronger, and it can look odd if the design outshines the message. What matters is that the reader can tell who wrote, how to reply, and what you want.
There are two exceptions worth noting. If you write often on behalf of a small group, such as a tenants' association or a school parents' group, a simple shared header helps readers file your letters together. And if you run a side business from home, a plain header with the business name and contact details keeps business mail separate from personal mail, which helps at tax time and when a customer needs to find you again.
A letterhead helps most when the letter itself is an official act: a quote, an invoice cover note, a job offer, a reference, a donation receipt cover, or a formal complaint from a business. In those cases, the reader may file the letter, pass it to another department, or check it later, and a consistent header makes the letter easy to recognise and hard to confuse with a copy. It also saves space: the reader does not have to hunt through the text for a phone number or an address.
For charities and professional practices, a letterhead also carries trust. A donor letter on plain paper can look like a personal note, while the same letter on the charity's header reads as an official thank-you. The same logic applies to a lawyer, an accountant, or a clinic writing to a patient or a client. None of this means a letterhead makes a claim true; it only makes the sender easier to identify and reach.
Leave off anything that changes often, such as a personal mobile number you may drop, a social media handle, or a long list of services. A letterhead that is out of date is worse than none, because it sends replies to a dead address. Leave off slogans, long mission statements, and images that print badly in black and white. Many letters are printed or copied in black and white, and a pale colour logo can vanish, leaving a blank gap at the top of the page.
Also leave off details that do not help the reader reply: tax numbers, registration numbers, and internal codes belong in the body of a letter only when the reader needs them for that specific matter. A short, accurate header beats a crowded one every time.
LetterAgent prints your letter exactly as quoted, single-sided on US Letter paper, and sends it in a double-window envelope where the recipient's address and your return address show through the windows. If your letter text includes a header block at the top of the first page, that block will print as part of the letter. Keep in mind that the return address in the envelope window is set from the sender address you give, so your printed header and the window address should match, or the reader may be unsure which address to use for a reply.
If you are writing a personal letter, skip the designed header and put your name and return address at the top in plain type. If you are writing as a business, a simple header with your name, address, phone, and email is enough. Either way, ask your AI assistant to describe the letter, approve the exact quoted price, and pay once through Stripe, as with any LetterAgent letter to a US or Canadian address.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is printed and mailed.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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