Show HN: I made a tool to send a letter now people use it to just print

28 bahrtw 23 4/15/2025, 4:21:51 PM pieterpost.com ↗

Comments (23)

coronapl · 15d ago
What a nice idea! A few questions out of curiosity:

* Do you plan to somehow collaborate with local post offices/companies/partners in order to avoid long-distance trips and increase the efficiency of the delivery?

* How will the delivery fee be calculated? Will it be roughly fixed or will it increase according to the distance/remoteness?

bahrtw · 15d ago
I already partner with a print company to increase speed and efficiency of the delivery. For now I just keep a minimum fee of 2 for the first page and 0,50 for the other pages. This works fine for now :)
Gys · 15d ago
How do you know people send the hard copy to themselves?

Edit: love the (Dutch) name!

I regularly use superpost.com which is a similar service, although a little cheaper. A very good experience. Although I can never remember their name when I need it ;) Too general I guess. I keep your service in mind for my next letter.

bahrtw · 15d ago
Did a little survey on what people are actually using the website for and this was not quite the outcome I expected!

Thanks for the compliment, and really cool to hear there are other services like this out there :)

BrandoElFollito · 15d ago
In France the post office does that for you. You send them a PDF and they print it, stamp it and deliver it.

As a bonus you get traceability.

bahrtw · 15d ago
heard about that! My experience is that in France they still use a lot of traditional stuff like cheques, but this is really cool.
marjancek · 13d ago
We have printing kiosks, in places like public libraries, that are particularly popular with students. They are inexpensive (0.10€ a page in colour) and good quality (laser).

Who can afford to have a printer at home?

BrandoElFollito · 15d ago
We are right in the technological middle ages in our administration or banks.

The national post is there too, except for a few things like these.

And yes we still use cheques, and this actually hinders evolution in banking.

bahrtw · 15d ago
Yes, I just looked at the website of the French Post. And I am a little bit shocked how many templates they have for administrative processes.. (Demarches administratives - 37). Looks like they need a good Post service because people still need to send a lot of important letters by physical mail..
BrandoElFollito · 14d ago
So many things are done in France via un petit courrier - "a little (snail) mail"...
bahrtw · 15d ago
I made a tool to send letters and now people use it to just print. What was the last thing you printed?
captn3m0 · 15d ago
I printed out an application form and had it delivered to a physical drop box at the Indian Railways office (they don’t accept email) via Blinkit (Indian quick commerce app, which does print+delivery in 10 minutes.).
bahrtw · 15d ago
That sounds interesting and superfast! Would be cool to use that! "The need was very selfish - we all felt that sporadic printing should not be a burden that occupies permanent space in our lives only to fail us when we really need it. Our existing distribution network also enabled us to deliver high-quality printouts to our customers at their doorsteps in minutes."
owlninja · 15d ago
What do you mean exactly? They just print some documents they need and get them mailed to themselves?
bahrtw · 15d ago
Yes! So my assumption is people don’t have printers anymore and want a easy way to print if they have or want to.

They just add files like a .pdf and let them send to their homes. So they have real physical prints..

cryptoz · 15d ago
This reminds of Google Paper in 2007: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_April_Fools%27_... I know at least 2 people who were fooled by it haha.
bahrtw · 15d ago
Haha, that’s a good one! I promise it’s real – otherwise, it would be a very late April Fool’s joke!
unsnap_biceps · 15d ago
Copies of all the documents I need to give to my accountant to assemble my taxes. Likely around 100 pages or so.
bahrtw · 15d ago
So you bring them to your accountant and he scans them? You do around 100 pages every quarter? May I ask where you are living that he needs hardcopy?
unsnap_biceps · 15d ago
No, I scan them and print the copies. My accountant is paper only and it's a yearly thing, not a quarterly thing. I live in the boonies.
fifilura · 15d ago
I print and platicize a lot of food recipes and maps for boy (and girl) scouts.
bahrtw · 15d ago
Nice! You have a printer yourself?
fifilura · 15d ago
Yes, only cheap black and white laser printer, nothing fancy.