Letters

A letter or email is often the first contact to an external or internal business partner.

The layout and style of correspondence conveys a first representative impression of the company. All business stationery of Messe Frankfurt and its subsidiaries and sales partners therefore has a uniform design. The rules for German-language correspondence are oriented towards DIN 5008 “Typography and layout rules for text presentation”.

For correspondence in other languages, please refer to the respective country-specific rules. Below you will find a summary of the most important points.

• Structuring: text components are separated by blank lines. Other aids for structuring are “dot”  and “en-dash” (not a hyphen).
• Numbers from zero to ten are written in words, from the number 11, they are written numerically. Longer groups of numbers are separated from the right into groups of two.
• Abbreviations: the abbreviation for square metres is sqm(s) or in German texts m². In running texts, euro can be written as 2.50 euros or € 2.50.
• Names and place names: the terms Messe Frankfurt, Festhalle, Torhaus, Portalhaus and Galleria are proper names and do not get translated. Wrapping names should be avoided. In editorial texts, event names are written out textually in upper/lower case lettering (no logotypes/logos). Capitalisation is only permitted for abbreviations such as IFFA or ISH. Signs such as “+” and “&” are taken over including blank spaces.
• Phone: the abbreviations are “Tel.” and “Mobile”. Numbers are separated by a space according to function (country code, area code, line number). A hyphen is placed in front of the extension number: Tel. +49 12 34 56-78 99, Mobile +49 123 45 67 89 99.
• Date: alphanumeric notation is recommended in order to avoid misunderstandings in international correspondence: 3. August 2020 (German), 3 August 2020 (international).
• Time: hours and minutes are written with two digits, separated by a colon (according to the 24-hour clock): 16:30 hrs, 09:45 hrs.
• Foreign address: please follow the internationally recognised British conventions. In the Messe Frankfurt letter templates, the respective fields for address, date and subject line have already been created (see example in the slider).
• Letterheads: these are created internally as Word templates for use in Frankfurt. If you require international templates or templates for envelopes, please contact HS 53.

Options

• Highlighting: individual words or text components can be highlighted by using bold or italic lettering. Underscoring as well as other type sizes or other typefaces and colours may not be used. In general, emphasis should be used meaningfully.