To fill out a postcard, turn it to the plain back and use its four zones. Write your message, the date and your name on the left half. Write the address on the right half, left-aligned, in the lower part of the card. Stick the stamp in the top right corner. Leave the strip along the bottom edge empty, because the post office prints a barcode there.

Below is each zone in turn, the order to fill them in, how much room each one really has, and a finished card you can copy.

What are the four parts of a postcard back?

Message, address, stamp and the clear strip. The message zone is the left half and belongs to you. The other three belong to the post office: address lower right, stamp top right, and a bottom strip where machines print a barcode. USPS calls the side with the address and stamp the address side, even when it also carries your message (DMM 201).

  1. Message. The left half. Date, greeting, a few lines, your name. What to say is in our guide on how to write a postcard.
  2. Address. The right half, in the lower part of the card, one item per line.
  3. Stamp. The top right corner, above the address.
  4. Clear strip. The bottom edge of the card, under the address. Nothing goes here.

How do you fill out a postcard, step by step?

Do the address first, then the stamp, then the message. With the address already in place, the message cannot creep across the middle line.

  1. Check which side is which. The back is the plain side, usually with a line down the middle and a box for the stamp. If it has no line, imagine one.
  2. Write the address. In the right half, starting below the stamp. Person's name, street, town with postcode, and the country in capitals on the last line if the card is going abroad. Line everything up on the same left edge. The full formats for five countries are in how to address a postcard.
  3. Stick on the stamp. Top right corner. If you need two, put them side by side along the top edge.
  4. Write the date and place. Top left of the message half. People keep postcards, and the date is what they look for later.
  5. Write the message. Greeting, two or three short lines, sign-off and your name. Stop at the middle line.
  6. Check the bottom strip. Nothing written, nothing stuck on. Then post it. How and where is in our guide on how to send a postcard.

Use a ballpoint or a pigment pen. A postcard travels without an envelope, so pencil smudges and some inks run in the rain.

What does a filled-in postcard look like?

Like this. It is a to-scale layout of a card sent from Kochi, India, to a friend in the United States. The address is made up.

A filled-in postcard: dated message from Kochi on the left, a four-line US address ending in USA on the right, stamp above
A finished card, so you can check yours against it: every word sits in its own zone and the bottom strip is empty.

Here it is as text, so you can copy the shape:

1 Oct 2026, Kochi                         [stamp]

Dear Nina,
The backwaters are as green as your
photos promised. We slept on a houseboat
and woke to kingfishers. You would love      NINA BAKER
the spice market. Home on the 12th.          2210 ELM ST APT 4
Dinner?                                      SPRINGFIELD IL 62704
                                             USA
Love, Ravi

Notice what is missing: no return address and no writing below the address. A postcard does not need a return address. If you want one, write it small at the top of the message half, never in the address half.

How much room does each zone have?

Less than it looks. On a standard 6 × 4 inch card the message half is about 3 inches wide, and the bottom ⅝ inch of the right side is off limits. USPS keeps a barcode clear zone that runs 4¾ inches in from the right edge and ⅝ inch up from the bottom (DMM 202).

The numbers behind each zone, from the US postal rules:

Zone Rule Source
Whole card 3½ to 4¼ in high, 5 to 6 in long, 0.007 to 0.016 in thick for the postcard rate DMM 201
Address half at least 2⅛ in wide on a card divided down the middle DMM 201
Around the address at least ⅛ in of clear space from any other writing in that half DMM 201
Where machines read the address from ⅝ in to 2¾ in up from the bottom, ½ in in from each side DMM 202
Clear strip 4¾ in from the right edge, ⅝ in high, at the bottom DMM 202

The read-area row is why the address sits low on the card. The scanner looks for it in the band between ⅝ inch and 2¾ inches from the bottom, so an address squeezed in under the stamp at the very top can be missed. Other countries use their own sizes. India Post's postcard, for example, is 140 × 90 mm and may weigh no more than 5 grams (India Post).

What if the postcard has no lines or stamp box?

Draw the zones in your head. Imagine a line down the middle, a stamp-sized square in the top right corner, and a strip about the width of a finger along the bottom. Then fill it in exactly as above. A light pencil line down the middle, rubbed out afterwards, helps if your writing tends to drift.

Some cards put the picture and the message on the same side, or have a printed box for a short note. The rule does not change: the address and stamp go on the side the post office reads, the address in the lower right, and nothing in the bottom strip.

How much is a stamp for a filled-out postcard?

In the US, a standard postcard takes a $0.65 postcard stamp, and a $1.75 Global Forever stamp sends it to any country (USPS). Other countries charge their own rates, checked and listed in our guide to postcard stamp prices. A card bigger than 4¼ × 6 inches pays the letter price in the US.

Once it is posted, allow time. Postcrossing, whose members have received more than 88 million postcards, reports a median of 21.0 days for a card to cross a border (Postcrossing).

What if you would rather not fill it out by hand?

Type it instead. With MailMyCard you type the message and the address, and a real pen writes them in ink on a card, in the right zones, with the strip left clear. We post it tracked from Bengaluru. Businesses that send cards to customers can do the same from their store; see MailMyCard for business.

Postcard mistakes to check before you post

  • Message crossing the middle. Words in the address half can be read as part of the address.
  • Address at the top of the card. It belongs low on the right, inside the band the scanner reads.
  • Anything in the bottom strip. A barcode printed over your writing can misread, and your words get covered.
  • Centred address lines. Line them up on one left edge.
  • No country line on a card going abroad. The country name, in capitals on the last line, is what tells the first post office where to send it.
  • Stamp on the picture side. USPS says the stamp goes on the same side as the address and message (USPS).

Sources