Letterheads Belfast: What to Include and Why They Still Matter

A letterhead is one of those things most people forget about until they need one. Then a solicitor asks for something in writing, or a customer wants a formal quote, and a plain Word document suddenly looks a bit thin. If you run a business in Belfast or anywhere in Northern Ireland, a properly printed letterhead is still one of the cheapest ways to look established on paper.

This guide covers what a letterhead legally has to include, how to get the design right, which paper to choose, and why branded stationery still earns its keep in 2026.

What a Letterhead Must Legally Include

This is the part most first-time buyers miss. In the UK, the law sets out exactly what certain businesses must show on their official correspondence, and a letterhead counts as official correspondence.

Limited companies

If you trade as a limited company, the Companies Act requires your letterhead to show three things: your full registered company name (including "Ltd" or "Limited"), your company registration number, and your registered office address. You also need to state where the company is registered, which for most local firms means "Registered in Northern Ireland".

Note that your registered office may not be the same as your trading address. Plenty of Belfast businesses are registered at their accountant's office. If that applies to you, both addresses can appear, but the registered office must be clearly labelled as such.

If you are VAT registered, adding your VAT number is good practice too, and it is required on any letterhead you use as an invoice template.

Sole traders and partnerships

The rules are lighter here. A sole trader must show their own name and a business address where documents can be served, even if they trade under a different business name. So "Joe's Plumbing" needs "Joe Bloggs trading as Joe's Plumbing" somewhere on the page. Partnerships must show the names of all partners, or state where a list of partners can be inspected.

Getting the Letterhead Design Right

Good letterhead design is mostly restraint. The letterhead is a frame for the letter, not the main event, so resist the urge to fill the page.

• Logo top left or top centre. This is where the eye lands first, and it is the convention every reader expects.
• Contact details in the header or footer. Phone, email, website, and address. The footer is the usual home for the legal details covered above.
• Leave room for the letter. Keep the printed elements within roughly the top 40mm and bottom 25mm of the page, so there is a clear typing area in between.
• White space is your friend. A sparse, confident layout reads as more professional than a busy one.

One practical point that catches people out: your letterhead will be printed over. Whoever types the letter needs sensible margins, so do not run a design element down the full left edge of the page unless you are happy to set a wide left margin in every document. Our artwork guidelines cover bleed, margins, and file setup in detail if you are supplying your own design.

Choosing the Right Paper

Paper choice matters more for letterheads than for almost any other print product, because the sheet has a second job: it has to go through your own office printer afterwards.

The sweet spot is 90gsm to 120gsm uncoated paper. Uncoated stock takes laser toner and inkjet ink cleanly, feeds reliably through desktop printers, and has a pleasant, natural feel. At 100gsm or 120gsm the sheet feels noticeably more substantial than standard 80gsm copier paper, which is exactly the impression you want.

Avoid coated or silk stocks. They look lovely on a flyer, but toner can flake off the smooth surface and some inkjets will smudge on it. If a letterhead jams your printer or smears when handled, it has failed at its one job.

Who Still Needs Letterheads?

Email has not killed the letterhead. It has just narrowed its use to the moments that matter, which is arguably where it does its best work.

• Solicitors and accountants, where formal letters are part of the daily routine and clients expect a certain standard.
• Trades quoting for work. A quote on headed paper signals an established business, and that matters when a customer is comparing three quotes for the same job.
• Invoices. An invoice on branded paper looks like it comes from a business with proper processes, and there is a widely held view among small business owners that professional-looking invoices get paid faster. At the very least, they get questioned less.
• Anything official: contracts, terms of engagement, references, letters to banks and landlords.

If your business sends fewer than a handful of letters a year, you may only need a short run. Letterheads are usually ordered from 100 sheets upwards, so you are not committing to boxes of stock you will never use.

Make It Part of a Stationery Set

A letterhead on its own is useful. A letterhead that matches the rest of your printed material is where branded stationery starts to pull its weight. When your quote arrives on headed paper, with a card attached and a compliment slip on top, the whole package says the same thing: this business has its act together.

The set is straightforward to build. Use the same logo, colours, and fonts across your letterhead, your business cards, and your compliment slips, and keep the contact details consistent on all three. We have written more about how printed stationery shapes your brand identity if you want the longer argument, but the short version is that consistency is what makes a small business look like a bigger one.

Ready to Order?

If you are sorting your stationery for the first time, start with the legal details, keep the design simple, and choose an uncoated stock that will behave in your office printer. We print letterheads on quality uncoated paper, we are happy to check your artwork before anything goes to press, and delivery is free anywhere in Northern Ireland.