Direct mail strategies have continued to change and evolve. Organizations want their marketing endeavors to be successful and efficient. The targeted audience continues to develop which is why marketing goals need to grow with the change. When people check their mail, they are more likely to open a letter that is handwritten instead of computer generated. There’s an element of a handwritten address that appeals to people. Handwritten messages feel more personal than a typed response. The written aspect makes it feel like the sender went above and beyond to personalize their greeting and message.

MyFont is a new technology that allows organizations to personalize their direct mail with real hand written fonts. MyFont is specifically used by mail inserters equipped with special high-speed ink-jet heads and software, which personalize the outside of an envelope or postcard with a custom font that mimics human handwriting. What differentiates MyFont from other font applications is that in addition to using a hand written font style, the software will randomly select 1 of 4 characters for each letter and change out that letter based on the surrounding contextual information. This gives the font a more realistic appearance by highlighting the subtleties in the different ways the same person can write the same letter.

The process starts with the sending organization either selecting a pre-created font type, or choosing to create their own font using their own handwriting. If the marketer wishes to create their own font, it involves writing the alphabet four times in a special template that is provided to the marketing agency. Once the font has either been selected or created the mail house or marketing agency will then incorporate that font into the mail piece design the same way that graphic artists work with other font files. At the time of inserting the specially designed ink-jet heads and software recognize the MyFont as a variable font type, and will start its randomization engine. Each character printed will then be randomly selected and changed on the fly.