Review: Dymo Printable Postage Sheets and Software

Endicia/Dymo has a new combination product for printing USPS postage from the comfort of your own home. Called Printable Postage, its 2 main components are a free piece of software for Windows/Mac and the Printable Postage sheets. You also need an Endicia/Dymo account where you can buy USPS postage for printing to the sheets.

I ran the software through some tests and was quite pleased with how easy it was to install and use. I tested the Windows version of Printable Postage with both a free Dymo Printable Postage account and a more advanced Endicia service account.  I’ll get to discussing the account options in a moment.

Software
The Dymo Printable Postage application is pretty easy to use. Enter your account username and password and you’re presented with a screen that looks like one of the Printable Postage sheets that has 24 blank stamps on it. You can then select a single postage value (ex: $0.44 (First-Class stamp)) for every stamp on the sheet or you can select a subset of the stamps on the sheet and decide on postage for those. You can also right-click on one or a set of stamps and select postage for just those.

There is also a built-in wizard to help you decide what kind of postage to select. I pretty much was able to use the software without reading any of the documentation, although it took a few extra minutes to realize I didn’t have to print an entire sheet of stamps filled with the same postage.

Even with my sub-$200 printer, the postage printed beautifully and complete with 2-D barcodes to help the PO process the mail even quicker. The self-adhesive stamps is also incredibly convenient.

Accounts
Although you need to sign up for an account in order to pay for the postage, the entry-level account is free and you simply fill up your account with postage. The software app won’t let you print unless there is money in your account.

If you run a small business, then you may be interested in one of the Endicia plans (starting at $9.95/mo) which let you do additional things such as print return labels, registered and insured mail, brand your mail, maintain an address book among many other features. You can also create your own postage (useful when you can weigh your mail and determine the postage exactly).

The free Printable Postage postage printing account allows you to print First Class, Priority Mail, Postcard and International Air Mail postage.

Value
If you can see yourself mailing out even 100 letters/small packages, even in a year, then you should consider getting a packet of Printable Postage sheets (about $22 for a package). Just think of the time you’ll save in going to the post office not to mention gas.

(Disclaimer: Gizmos for Geeks received a complimentary review copy of this product.)