Whether illustrating a product or lifestyle, images and videos should always be relevant to page content and enhance the customer’s understanding.
All imagery and video used on the USPS.com domain must either be owned by USPS® or used with permission and in accordance with the terms of usage.
Photography
Photography contextualizes and humanizes page content while adding visual appeal.
Any photography should convey the USPS digital brand of simple, flexible, and friendly. Include people in photography when appropriate and take care to represent diversity. Make sure people and activities shown in photos relate to the page content.
Video & Audio
USPS.com makes sparing use of video and audio content on the main website domain, and when it does, it is almost always associated with a USPS.com tool or application. Additionally, some USPS marketing websites make use of A/V content
Wherever it is used, use the following specifications when adding video or audio content.
Audio Specifications
- Codec: AAC
- Audio Quality: High
- Bitrate: 192 kbps
Videos are used sparingly for explainers, tutorials, and promotions.
Video Specifications
- Format: H264 MP4
- Resolution: 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080
- Frame Rate: 23.976, 29.97, or source frame rate
- Profile: High
- Level: 5.1
- Bitrate: 20 CBR
- Keyframe Distance: 150
Video is not hosted on USPS.com. When used, a YouTube player is embedded in the page leveraging the USPS YouTube channel. Customers can watch videos in-screen, full-screen, or on the USPS YouTube channel. All videos must be subtitled, or accompanied by a transcript or YouTube-compatible caption file.
YouTube Specifications
The following information and assets are required for uploading USPS.com videos to the YouTube channel to obtain the reference link:
- Caption or transcript: a .txt file is required to meet 508 accessibility standards
- Video title: recommend 50 characters or less
- Video description: can be up to 5,000 characters, but include the most important content in the first 160; also include http://www. or https://www. in any URLs
- Video Thumbnail image: 1280px x 720px and under 2mb (JPG, GIF, or PNG)
- Video in YouTube-ready format: see above
- Any appropriate search tags
- Expiration date of the video (pursuant to licensing or talent agreements)
- Confirmation that the USPS Ad Review Process has been successfully completed, to include the LD number
