University of Southern Maine

Correspondence: USM Letterhead Guidelines

The University of Southern Maine's official letterhead may be ordered by calling the USM Printing Center at 780-4065. Campus entities may order generic institutional letterhead (see Example 5) or letterhead customized for their individual school, office, department, or program (refer to Examples 1-4; details below).

Example 1: Letterhead may only have one department/unit identifier (Office of the President in this example) as it appears with the USM logo.

Examples 2 & 3: Only one identifier may appear with the USM logo (Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures in Example 2; New Student Advising and Registration in Example 3). However, those departments/units that need further identification with an academic program or administrative department may use a second identifier in the lower left-hand corner as shown in Example 2 (for an academic program) and Example 3 (for an administrative department).

Example 4: Named schools and colleges (Muskie School of Public Service in this example) may use this design template.

To maintain consistency and professionalism in all University correspondence, individual campus entities, event sponsors, or others should not design their own letterhead. All letterhead is printed on USM white paper.

Formatting a Business Letter

To provide a more standardized, professional look for USM correspondence, the University suggests that the letter begin 2 1/4 inches from the top of the page with a 1 1/8-inch margin at the left and a 1-inch margin at the right. The preferred type size and font for letters is 11-point Times Roman (see Example 6).

USM Letterhead Microsoft Word Templates

We are also providing Microsoft Word Templates online. Because color printers do not print color consistently, printing one's own letterhead is not encouraged.

The letterhead files are set up with the logo on a first page and blank subsequent pages.The department, office, or program and contact information can be customized on the header and footers. If you do not customize, be sure to take out the place markers from the header and footer. The margins are set; all you need to do is type in your letter and print. The templates are available for PC and Mac in color and black and white.

For more information about working in Microsoft Word visit the program's assistant or in-program help.

Download the Microsoft Word templates.