Best way to mail negatives (envelope sizes, etc)

Hello, I have a lightbox and have film developed only. Then, I send the negatives back to get printed. Up until now, I've just put the negatives into covers and mailed in an envelope, but this solution is becoming unwieldy. I want to start using Print File sheets to both store and ship instead of having 10-20 separate strips in an envelope.

So, my question is what size sheets and what size envelopes. For example, a sheet of seven strips of five folded over into an envelope around 10 1/2" x 6 1/2".

I'm open to other suggestions. My main goal is to make it easy for me and easy for the lab, but I did like just throwing them into an #10 envelope with two stamps on it.

Also, on the same topic, what's the best way to mark which negatives to print.

Welcome to APUG

I would be concerned about the cancellation machine stomping on the negatives.

Sirius Glass said:

Welcome to APUG

I would be concerned about the cancellation machine stomping on the negatives.

Click to expand...

ugh! But, I haven't had a problem yet...could use cardboard backing, though.

(and thanks for the welcome!)

Sirius Glass said:

I would be concerned about the cancellation machine stomping on the negatives.

Click to expand...

The big high speed sorting machines that the likes of USPS and Royal Mail use will generally have inkjet printed cancellations. The biggest problem with these machines as that they will bend the letters as they whiz around the drums inside the machines.

[video=youtube;wG8ULky-NwA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG8ULky-NwA[/video]

Place the negatives between a couple of bits of stiff card and pay the extra for manual sorting.

Definitely use a rigid backing and preferably a larger envelope stamped with "PHOTOS DO NOT BEND". If the images are important you should have duplicate negatives in case the others are lost in the mail. Indicate the number of the frames and other instructions in an enclosed note. It's possible that your printer is printing digitally, if so you might consider scanning the negatives and emailing or sending a disc with the files thus protecting the original negatives.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

Thanks for all the input. I always thought making copies of negatives would degrade the resolution.