QUOTE
Am I missing something?
Just the bar codes! I suppose the Post Office uses those, but it doesn't matter when the carrier can't/won't read the address.
On the other hand, bulk mailers do get a discount when those codes are used. Of course, the rest of us just get to pay a little bit more when/if we mail
anything! Exactly who
is the 'customer,' anyway...
Specifically, however, AB does allow one to print 'images.' And, on envelopes, one might be able to insert a bar code as the "Country" field, which might not be convenient for overseas mailings.
But AB also allows printing envelopes sorted by Postal codes. Even that can help the PO, even if you don't get a discount.
I doubt that many of us actually are getting any discount for using a bar code, anyway. But if that is needed, I would assume, dangerous as that is, that any good bulk address printer would do that, as well as compute them, when printing. For serious addressing/mailing tasks, a paid service is much more efficient, IMHO. All they need is a plain text list of addresses. A secondary expense comes from paying double when the addresses aren't verified before being used or that become dated/invalid because of address changes/death/etc.
Sorry my suggestion won't help.
As someone once said,"Bar codes?" Neva use 'd 'em!