How do YOU place a card/letter in an envelope?

June 17, 2022 4:46 PM

This is not a how-to question, but a how-you question! For a card, do you place the seam at the bottom or the top? Do you have the card image facing the back, or facing the front? How many times do you fold a sheet of paper when you're sending a letter? I want to know your process!
posted by curious nu to Grab Bag (27 answers total)

Seam at the top.

Front for the card image.
posted by Windopaene at 4:48 PM on June 17, 2022 [7 favorites]

Seam at the top unless I have tucked a gift card, money, or stickers inside. Then it goes in the other way so the gift isn’t left inside of the envelope. Image goes behind the envelope flap.
posted by kimberussell at 4:53 PM on June 17, 2022 [14 favorites]

Seam at the top, card image towards the back. Most of the people to whom I give cards don’t use letter openers, so it’s a safe bet that they’re opening it from the back. So I think it’s sensible to orient the card that way.
posted by Monochrome at 4:56 PM on June 17, 2022 [4 favorites]

What is the front?
posted by atomicstone at 4:59 PM on June 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

P.S. For letters I hate trying to fold it in thirds. Instead of getting a tool to help with that (like Kitty Unpretty), I bought A9 sized envelopes. They fit a sheet of letter paper folded in half.
posted by Monochrome at 5:00 PM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

I put the seam at the bottom, and the fold opening at the top.
This way, the recipient is less likely to inadvertently slit the document in two if they use a letter opener.
If the item is a card, I put the front of the card facing the envelope opening.
If I'm using 8.5"x11" paper and putting it in a business envelope, I'll fold the paper into thirds.
In cases like this, I must put a fold on both the top and bottom of the envelope, and so I try to orient the letter such that it's right-side up if the recipient opens the envelope right-side-up and the envelope opening facing them.
TL:DR:I try to anticipate how the recipient will open the letter, and fold/orient the letter to best accommodate that.
posted by cleverevans at 5:01 PM on June 17, 2022 [6 favorites]

Seam at the top, front of the card facing the back of the envelope.

I fold a letter such that it fills the envelope, typically halves or thirds depending on the paper and envelope.
posted by mumkin at 5:01 PM on June 17, 2022

I feel like even when using a letter opener I do so from the flap (back) side so I always face the front of card that way. Card orientation is more of a judgement call, but I hold envelopes in my left hand and open with my right. Again, letter opener or no. So the folded edge of the card goes at the bottom of the envelope. I also am careful to tuck the flap rather than use the built-in sealant, when the card is not going through the post.
posted by wnissen at 5:04 PM on June 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

Cards go in envelopes so the open edge is on the bottom, with the front of the card facing the back of the envelope. That way, if you open it along the top and hold the envelope in your right hand while pulling out the contents with your left, the card is upright and facing forward. If there’s money or something extra with the card I use a paperclip.

Letter pages are folded in thirds with the top third as the outer flap. That way when you pull the letter out, the first part you unfold is the beginning. To get better at folding paper into thirds, instead of visualizing it as thirds, try to get the size of your first fold to be equal to the size of the paper remaining uncovered, so you’re just trying to make two things even instead of three. If an envelope is very thin I fold a blank sheet of paper around the letter so the writing doesn’t show through and interfere with the address.
posted by Mizu at 5:06 PM on June 17, 2022 [8 favorites]

Seam at the bottom of the envelope and the image to the envelope flap side. I think this allows the recipient to open the envelope and see the message and any contents without having to actually pull the card out.
posted by beaning at 5:24 PM on June 17, 2022

I put it in the envelope image facing so it's the first thing you see on opening the flap with the spine on the edge that's not inside the envelope. I think I remember someone purposefully telling me to do it this way when I was young.
posted by bleep at 5:48 PM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

Miss Manners addressed the card facing front or back question just a few months ago.
posted by Dolley at 5:52 PM on June 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

Seam at the bottom, front of card facing front when you pull out from the back of the envelope. If the receiver is right handed, they'll pull it out ready to read. If they are left handed, seam at the top.
posted by greta simone at 7:28 PM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

Seam at the top.

Front of card is seen when you open envelope from the flap-side.
posted by Toddles at 7:29 PM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]

I am chaotic neutral on all of these points probably do it differently each time.
posted by desuetude at 8:22 PM on June 17, 2022 [5 favorites]

When I was a child I was solemnly instructed on this topic with the rules exactly as Mizu describes. Made sending a letter feel like saying an incantation, and even today mail always feels like magic to me.
posted by mochapickle at 8:48 PM on June 17, 2022 [3 favorites]

Front of the card facing away from the envelope flap so that the recipient doesn’t see the image until they remove the card. Not sure about where the fold goes but think it is usually at the top.

Mostly when I write letters these days they are accompanying something I’m sending, such as a magazine, so use a sheet of A4 and fold it in half. Sometimes I fold the edge of the letter over the top edge of the magazine cover so that the recipient doesn’t remove the magazine and not see the letter.
posted by paduasoy at 12:29 AM on June 18, 2022

Image facing the envelope flap. Envelopes are often thin enough that the image can be seen slightly through the paper, and with the extra layers and the extra visual complexity on the back of the envelope, there's less chance of spoiling the surprise that way round. Also, if you end up writing the address with a pen that bleeds through, or you put enough pressure on it to dent what's below, better that be the back of the card than the front.

Seam at the top. No real reason for this other than that it just feels wrong the other way up, especially if the picture is landscape format, doubly especially if it has an animal on it (you can't put it upside-down in the envelope, that's just cruel!).
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:24 AM on June 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

Seam at top, don’t think I apply any rules as to which way the picture faces.

A4 or similar size sheets in three, unless it’s some kind of form in which case I have bigger envelopes and fold in half or not at all. All of these with top facing the front of the envelope because windows for address fields are a thing at least at work and it makes sense. I no longer have to post my work correspondence but that’s where I learned how to do three part folding.

Smaller sheets like A5 typically folded in half. Most of the time the side with the writing will be folded inwards in that case.
posted by koahiatamadl at 4:35 AM on June 18, 2022

Seam of the card at the top, image toward the front of the envelope.

Fold a letter three times, bottom toward the middle then top toward the middle, front of the letter toward the front of the envelope.

So that when the people open the envelope and remove the thing, they see the first part first.

In both cases, I don't think of this so much as the way I do things, but more like the good-manners-approved way to do things. This may be unique to the time and place and culture where I learned about manners.
posted by box at 6:38 AM on June 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Picture definitely always facing the envelope flap (so, facing away from the address side). Seam up, as I believe it's easier to pull free from the envelope that way.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 6:43 AM on June 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I know you said it's not a how-to question, but things like this were actually addressed (HA) in secretarial schools back in the day (and also in high school classes in secretarial/homemaker subjects). I graduated from high school in 1988 and we still had typing classes and "life" classes. One of the classes I took taught us about how to find an apartment, how to budget, how to plan a wedding (we LITERALLY held a mock wedding, it was so weird), and even did the whole "care for an egg for a week to get an idea of what it's like to have a baby" thing.

In typing class and whatever that other class was named, we were taught to put a card facing the envelope flap with the seam at the top. Tri-fold letters were to be folded first with the address, date, and salutation showing, and placed in the envelope so those things were visible, right-side-up, when the recipient opened the envelope.

So there is a "right" way to do these things, even if we don't really teach it anymore. That said, I would never, ever criticize someone for not following (potentially dated?) business and personal etiquette. I just like getting mail! :)
posted by cooker girl at 6:49 AM on June 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

Fold at the bottom to avoid it inadvertently getting cut when opening.

Back of the card is touching the address/stamp side, since all good-hearted people flip the card over to open it on the flap side. Recipient pulls out the card with flap-side up and sees the front of the card.

Letters get tri-folded.
posted by Twicketface at 8:32 AM on June 18, 2022

Ha! I had to go over to the table where June Card Club cards are in production, and watch myself stuffing a card in the envelope, to see how I do it.
Front of card is facing the back flap, seam depends on if there's extra stuff in the card, as loose stickers are popular exchange items. But I don't always remember those, so sometimes the seam is down.
This question does remind me, though, about getting fancy invitations to weddings, and how many envelopes within the envelope you wander through before you find the thing that says what where who.
posted by winesong at 8:37 AM on June 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

Cards: seam at the top, front facing the flap.

Letters: For personal ones, I have dedicated letter-writing stationery where the paper folds in half. (Seam top.) For ones printed on 8.5x11 in #10 envelopes I fold in thirds with no real sense of what's the outside fold other than the printed side goes inside.
posted by holgate at 12:01 PM on June 18, 2022

Response by poster: Ha! I had to go over to the table where June Card Club cards are in production, and watch myself stuffing a card in the envelope, to see how I do it.

This is what prompted the question! :D I was doing mine and got to wondering about it.
posted by curious nu at 4:26 PM on June 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wrote a card today and came back to modify my answer. I found myself putting the card in with image facing out so it would be visible on opening the card, and think I did this because the recipient has dementia and it may be less confusing for them if they see the image immediately on opening the card. Assuming they open it by lifting the flap. I think I may be overthinking all this.
posted by paduasoy at 3:37 AM on June 19, 2022