Snail Mail: Alive and Well But Made Easy on Your Mac

Are you using the United States Postal Service regularly for mailing out important documents for your home or business? Do you find yourself or your employees routinely at the post office waiting in line to buy stamps or send mail? There is a solution that is available for your Mac to save you those headaches and let you print and customize postage from the comforts of your home or office! It’s called Endicia for Mac.

Mailing letters to patients, insurance companies and referring doctors is a daily occurrence at my office.

Running to the post office to buy stamps or to have certain mail sent certified and return receipt requested became a very time consuming and aggravating experience.

In addition, it also would increase my operating expenses if my employees took care of postal matters during their lunch hour or after the office had closed for the day.

The USPS and other authorized vendors such as Stamps.com do not support the Mac or any modern browser other than IE 6.0 or higher to access their desktop or online postage printing services.

Fortunately, Endicia, an authorized USPS licensed vendor, does support the Mac.

Endicia for Mac offers numerous features, but here are a few:

• Prints labels and envelopes in batches
• Prints mailing labels, envelopes and postage
• Calculates domestic and international rates
• Features free delivery confirmation on Priority Mail
• Has built-in support for electronic postal scales
• Handles certified mail and return receipt requests
• Offers parcel insurance
• Tenders automatic address verification
• Accesses all of the addresses in your Macs AddressBook
• Offers FileMaker Pro support for scripting to pre-fill Endicia labels

More details and great video demonstrations of Endicia for Mac can be found here.

The service costs $15.95 per month, in addition to the cost of postage. There are no long-term contracts and the service can be cancelled at anytime.

For printable postage you will need to buy special sheets that are sold through Endicia. You can use an ink jet or laser printer and print 24 stamps on a single sheet. A pack of 5 sheets will cost you $3.95 or a pack of 50 sheets will run you $37.95.

Endicia also offers the capability of printing your own customized stamps with your own photos or even business logos. PictureItPostage 2.2.2 is a free application for your Mac that seamlessly integrates with iPhoto and iSight camera.

This feature allows you or your business to really standout from the crowd. $0.42 first class stamps start at $18.95 for a sheet of 20. You get 42% more area for your photo compared to other services and you can position your photo in either landscape of portrait orientation.

Endicia for Mac is easy to use and can streamline your mailing activities to save you time and money in the long run if you send out a high volume of mail. I have been incredibly pleased with Endicia in my office and highly recommend it.