Plavidian Workbench™
Free USPS Mailing Tools, Answers and Standards
Ask a mailing question and get a straight answer, run your list and artwork through free tools, or read the USPS standards behind both. Everything here is free and needs no sales call to start.
Six ways to use it
- Plavidian Studio™NewBuild print-ready postcards, flyers, door hangers, stickers and mailers in your browser, with bleed, safe zone, permit and address area, CMYK color and 300 dpi checks built in, then save the file straight to your job.
- Plavidian Expert™Ask about tabbing, folds, piece sizes, postage eligibility, or EDDM and get an answer grounded in the USPS Domestic Mail Manual and the current Notice 123. No account needed to try it.
- Free toolsValidate addresses, estimate postage, size a piece, generate an indicia, and plan a drop shipment in your browser. Some open with no sign-in; the rest need a free account.
- Articles and how-to guidesStep-by-step guides to planning a mailing, plus dated updates when USPS standards or prices change.
- Blog: direct mail, print and USPSShorter, more frequent writing on what is changing in mail and print, and what it means for a campaign.
- USPS mailing guidesPlain-language guides to mail classes, piece sizes, tabbing, addressing, automation, EDDM, and drop shipment, written from the DMM.
Free tools
What each tool does
- Mailing Blueprint™Plan the whole mailing from the list: postage, drop plan, in-home dates and map.
- In-Home Date EstimatorFrom the entry date to the in-home window.
- Piece Size ToolLetter or flat, before it changes your postage.
- Permit Imprint GeneratorA correct indicia, ready to place.
- Weight CalculatorKnow the weight before the postage.
- Address List CleanupTurn a messy list into a mailable one.
- Drop Shipment PlanSee where the mail actually goes.
- Artwork PrepressCatch print problems before they print, then fix them.
- PDF Page SplitterOne PDF in, the pages you need out.
- Mail Date PlannerStart from the day it lands and find out when your files are due.
- Mailing List BuilderPick an area, see who lives there, and what the postage costs.
- EDDM Route BuilderSaturation mail by carrier route, with no list to buy.
- Print File CheckUpload a print file and see what a press would catch, graded A to F.
Run them all free: create an account and run every tool with your real files in your Plavidian account.
One-page overviews
Each tool on a single page, written from what it actually does. Hand one to a client or a colleague, or keep it on file.
Inside Blueprint™: Density Optimizer
Sometimes mailing more pieces costs less
USPS prices carrier-route mail by how many pieces land on each route, so a route holding 118 pieces pays a higher price on all 118 than it would on 125. Almost every list has routes sitting just under a threshold.
Density Optimizer runs on a completed estimate and finds them. It shows each short route, how many pieces it needs, and what the mailing costs both ways: as submitted, and with those routes filled. You pick the routes you want, and the numbers update as you go. Sometimes filling a route pays for itself several times over. Sometimes it costs more than it saves, and the report says so in plain red numbers, which is the point of running it before anything prints rather than after.
When it does pay, you are adding households in neighborhoods you already chose to mail. For a campaign that is more voters in your best precincts, often at little or no net postage cost. Filling routes needs a source of addresses on those specific routes, which can come from your own held-back names or a targeted list order. Plavidian pulls only the addresses that land where they are needed and stops at the threshold.
Ready to put it to work?
Create a free account for the full toolset, or send us the job and we will handle print, list processing, and mailing under one workflow.