How to Design a Company Letterhead That Looks Official and Stays Compliant
By the Super Simple Digital Tools Team · Updated June 2026
A good letterhead does one job well: it tells the reader instantly who sent the letter and how to reach them, without competing with the message. That balance is why the most trusted designs are restrained. The header carries your name, logo, and contact details; the rest of the page stays clear for the letter itself. Before choosing colors or fonts, decide what must appear, because a letterhead is a container for information first and a branding exercise second.
Start with the header zone at the top of the page. Place the logo and company name where the eye lands first, the top-left corner or the center, and put the mailing address, phone, email, and website on the lines beneath. Keep this block compact. A header that eats a third of the page pushes your actual letter down and looks amateurish. Aim to leave roughly two inches at the top for the header and keep one-inch margins on the sides so the body text breathes.
Next, treat the footer as the home for the fine print. This is where statutory information lives in small type: company registration number, registered office address, VAT or tax identification number, and, where relevant, a regulatory body or legal disclaimer. In several countries these details are mandatory on business letters for incorporated companies, charities, and VAT-registered businesses. Separating them into a footer keeps the header clean while still meeting your obligations.
Typography and color decide whether the letterhead reads as professional. Stick to one or two clean typefaces, a classic serif like Garamond or a neutral sans-serif works well, and a restrained palette, often a single brand color plus black or dark grey. Avoid decorative fonts, heavy background images, or low-contrast text that becomes unreadable when faxed, scanned, or photocopied. The recipient should be able to read every contact detail at a glance and reproduce it without errors.
Finally, build the letterhead once and reuse it everywhere. Save it as a template so every letter, quote, and formal notice starts from the same header and footer, then write the body beneath it. Consistency across correspondence is what makes a small business look established. When you print, confirm the page size matches your paper (US Letter or A4) and run a test print to check that nothing in the header or footer is clipped by your printer's non-printable edge.
- Keep the header under about two inches tall so it never crowds the letter body or push the date and recipient address onto a second page.
- Put statutory details (registration number, registered office, VAT number) in a small footer, not the main header, and confirm exactly which ones your company type must show.
- Use a logo file with a transparent or white background so it sits cleanly on the page and reproduces well when scanned or photocopied.
- Test-print at actual size on your real paper (Letter or A4) to make sure contact details near the edges are not cut off by the printer's margins.