Letterhead Standards
This page contains guidelines for printed and electronic letterhead and resources for campus communicators.
Printed Letterhead
Letterhead may be ordered online through the Facilities & Services Printing Department or in person at 100 Printing Building, 54 East Gregory, Champaign, 61820, 333-9350. Please note that because letterhead requires a special run at a paper mill, the Printing Department is the only source for watermark bond for letterhead.
Appearance
The college, school, department, or unit name and address appear on the left side of the letterhead, parallel to the I Mark, in bold. A primary and a secondary unit name separated by a return may be used, but only the primary name is bolded.
The University wordmark appears in the top center of the letterhead over the one-color I Mark.
All other contact information, including phone, fax, and Web address, appear at the bottom center of the page.
All other logos or illustrations are not permitted.
Names and titles
An individual's name and title cannot be printed on letterhead unless he or she is a University Scholar or a professor holding a named chair. In the latter instance, the professor may use his or her name as well as the name of the endowed chair.
Electronic Letterhead
Electronic letterhead is subject to the same standards as printed letterhead in that it may not differ in in design or content from the standard format. Unit logos and other illustrations are not permitted.
Electronic letterhead may not be used to circumvent the Campus Administrative Manual's requirements for printed stationery. The watermark of the University seal in the bond paper of the printed letterhead certifies to the recipient that the document is an official University communication, a requirement for some grants and in some legal issues.
Campus Resources
These resources are available to campus communicators:
- a standardized Word template with preset margins that may be downloaded and used to print the body copy of a letter on the official printed letterhead obtained from the Facilities & Services Printing Department.
- a custom Word template created for campus units by Creative Services that may be used only for email, internal campus communications and faxed correspondence. There is no charge; allow five business days for delivery.
Standardized Word Template to Print on Official Letterhead
Download the template (illinois_letterhead.dot) file and open it in Word. Click "Save As" and save the file to the "My Templates" folder in Word.
To use it in Word, click on "file," in the pull-down menu, select "Project Gallery," then "My Templates" and click on the "illinois_letterhead.dot" file. Type the body copy of the letter and save it as a .doc. Load your printer with the official printed letterhead for your campus unit previously obtained from the Facilities & Services Printing Department and print.
Download the standardized Word template.
Custom Word Template for Email, Internal Campus Communications or Faxed Correspondence
Campus units may obtain a Word template with their unit name, address, telephone number, fax number, and Web site address by contacting Creative Services. There is no charge; allow five business days for delivery.
The template may be used only for email, internal campus communications and faxed correspondence. All printed correspondence viewed by external audiences must comply with the campus requirements for printed stationery.
The custom template is available only in black and campus units may not change the color of elements in the header and footer. This guideline is especially important because Word converts CMYK and Pantone colors to RGB when graphics are imported, which means there is poor color control. This problem is made worse by the difficulty in controlling color accuracy with desktop printers.
