Address Requirements DHL (international)

Different address requirements apply depending on the country to which letters are sent. At Pingen, letters not sent to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, India or the United Kingdom are forwarded to DHL for delivery.

In this article, we summarise the most important address requirements of DHL.

If DHL encounters issues when processing the recipient's address, DHL may reject the letter or only forward it for a surcharge. In such cases, there will be no refund and any surcharges will be passed on by Pingen, as the sender is responsible for the correct addressing.

Address requirements of DHL

DHL address structure requirements

In order for the recipient address to be processed by DHL, the last address line must contain the name of the destination country in CAPITAL LETTERS (either in German or English). Furthermore, the rest of the address must be written based on the common address format of the destination country. Also to most countries no address lines may be placed between the address line with the postcode and the address line with the country name. For example:

DHL font requirements

DHL defines specific information regarding font formatting:

Font size (height of verse)

• ‍Minimum: 2.3 mm
• Maximum: 4.7 mm
• Recommended font size: 10 pt to 12 pt in "regular" (normal) font style

Character spacing

End of a character to the beginning of the next character:

• Minimum: 0.2 mm
• Maximum: 0.4 mm

Word spacing

The space between blocks of digits and words:

• Minimum: 1.0 mm
• Maximum: 4.0 mm
• Usually one or two spaces

Line spacing (weft)

Uniform line spacing between the descenders of the top line and the ascenders of the bottom line for the entire address:

• Minimum: 0.5 mm
• Maximum: 2.5 mm

Font & colour

For the recipient's address to be properly read, a clear font with an easily readable font size is mandatory.

• Recommended fonts: Arial, Frutiger, Helvetica, Times or Univers
• Uniform font
• Font colour: Black
• No italics or decorative fonts
• No serif fonts
• No fonts with connected letters
• No 3D or shaded fonts

Usually not accepted by DHL

Further details on the design:

DHL specifies further requirements for address design:

• According to DIN 5008, the address block must be left-aligned
• No blank lines between the address lines
• Uniform line spacing for the entire address
• Neither postcode nor city must be underlined or blocked out.
• Only use Latin characters and Arabic numerals on the last address line

Usually not accepted by DHL

Distracting elements in the address area

DHL stipulates that only the postal address may be included in the address area. Pingen checks whether there is any additional information in the address area below the address.

Please ensure that no further details follow below the postal address and that there is no additional content in the address area.

Note: The illustrations in this article are not to scale