Scribble glossary

The words Scribble uses, defined. The two worth learning first: a credit is one card, and an arrival window is a range of days, never a promised delivery date.

Arrival window: The range of days a card is expected to land in: four to five days, always ending on the date you asked it to arrive by. Never a promise about a single day. See arrival windows.
Arrive-by date: The one date anybody sets. Everything else — when the card is written, packed and posted — is worked out backwards from it.
Automation: An evergreen rule that creates cards on its own, on a daily schedule. See how automations work.
Campaign: A batch of cards you build and schedule yourself, through the six-step wizard. One or two cards go through Send a card instead, which produces a campaign of one underneath.
Send one card: The account flow for up to four cards, with Who, Card, Message and When steps. Shared-space sends use that space’s credits and approval settings.
Handwriting size: Chosen automatically by the message composer. A short note starts with a 3.5 mm capital-path target; the lowercase body is checked separately. Every card in a campaign uses one size that fits the merged messages. See handwriting size.
Return address: The address on the back of the envelope, and where a card comes back to if it cannot be delivered. An organization can keep several — head office, regional offices — with one as the default, and every send can pick a different one. Set them up in Settings.
Proof: A scaled preview of the card and envelope, using the card geometry and handwriting paths. Check your words and their placement here. The physical size on screen depends on your device and zoom, and letter shapes vary between cards.
Card code: The identifier for one physical card, like SC-NH4DERB. Six payload characters plus a check character, in an alphabet with no I, L, O or U so it cannot be misread aloud. It follows the card through production and appears on the back cover and the envelope.
Credit: One card, including the card, the envelope, the writing and US postage. Bought outright, never expires. See how credits work.
Design: Saved front artwork that you can reuse. Add the message, sign-off and handwriting when preparing the send. Older saved designs may also retain inside content.
Do-not-mail list: People and households nobody in your company can write to. Survives a re-import recreating a contact you deleted. See do-not-mail.
Held: A card blocked from production because it needs attention. Direct API and automation cards held at creation are not charged; shop credit orders are charged at checkout. Check the space’s ledger for the payment record.
House handwriting: Your organization's default handwriting style. Every campaign and automation inherits it unless it picks its own, and so does every card sent through the API or an inbound hook that names no handwriting of its own.
Inbound hook: A URL that sends one card every time something POSTs JSON to it. The token in the URL is the credential. See inbound hooks.
List: A saved group of contacts for mailings and date-card rules. A mailing copies the current members; an active rule follows later membership changes.
Merge field: A placeholder like {{first_name}} replaced per recipient. See merge fields.
Occurrence: One instance of a date an automation acts on: this year's birthday for this person. The unit the duplicate guard is keyed on.
Physical proof: A paid card sent to your own address so you can check the printed front, ink and layout before a larger mailing.
Posted: Handed to USPS. The point at which a card leaves Scribble's control.
Printed: In Scribble, this word only ever describes the artwork on the card stock. Nothing about the handwriting is printed.
Scope: A permission granted to an API key, such as cards:send, cards:read, contacts:read, contacts:write or webhooks:manage.
Suppression: The technical name for an entry on the do-not-mail list.
Unverified: The status every address carries. Scribble checks the shape of an address, not whether post arrives there.
Written: What Scribble does to a card: a machine holds a real pen and drags it across paper. The correct word for our output in every context.

Last checked against the product on 2026-10-02. Something wrong or missing? Tell us.