1-3.2 Proper Delivery Address Placement On a letter-size piece, the entire delivery address should be within the Optical Character Reader (OCR) read area, which is defined as follows: Left: 1/2" from the left edge of the piece. Right: 1/2" from the right edge of the piece. (The Postal Service recommends 3/4" because of lead edge fold over.) Top: 2-3/4" from the bottom edge of the piece. Bottom: 5/8" from the bottom edge of the piece. See Exhibit 1-3.2. Having the delivery address within the OCR read area gives the Postal Service the best opportunity to read the address and to apply a correct routing barcode to the mailpiece. Exhibit 1-3.2  OCR Read Area