The sign is the brand.

01

The store

A locally owned pack, ship and print store in Suite 40 of a shopping center on FM 1463, in the Cardiff Ranch area of Katy. Under new ownership since January 2023.

02

Name and sign

People find this store from the road. The website looks like what they see: white channel letters with dark returns, two lines, spaced dots.

• The web wordmark is typeset from the sign (Source Sans 3 Black, all caps). It is not a new logo.
• The owner's real logo is a script "Cardiff Postal" with a blue globe and red map pin (seen on the counter mat). Use it only from a full-size file supplied by the owner. Never trace or redraw it.
• Always Cardiff Postal. In page titles, pair it with Katy, TX: on its own, "cardiff postal" autocompletes to the Welsh city's postcodes.
• Never "PostNet", "Cardiff PostNet" or "Cardiff Postal Net" (old listings the owner should clean up). No Welsh or UK imagery.
• The sign's spaced dot (Pack . Ship . Print) is the one decorative device in type. Red on the site, white on the sign.

03

Colour

One accent. Carrier colours (FedEx purple and orange, UPS brown, USPS blue, DHL yellow) appear only inside real photos, never as interface colour.

• #16191B
  Sign BlackText, the header, dark bands, the footer. The dark returns on the storefront letters.
• #B8282F
  Cardiff RedThe one accent: Call buttons, the tape, the eyebrow rule, the next-pickup chip. The store's red accent wall.
• #F05A5F
  Red on DarkRed text on Sign Black, where Cardiff Red is too dark to read.
• #FFFFFF
  Letter WhitePage background and the lit letters.
• #F5F2EC
  StuccoAlternate light band. The warm facade, lightened.
• #EBE6DC
  Stucco DeepTab rails, image mats, quiet fills.
• #5B5750
  LimestoneSecondary text on light backgrounds.
• #1F8A4C
  Open GreenOnly the 'Open now' dot and checklist ticks. Never a button.

Rough share of any page: white 55, sign black 25, stucco 12, red 8.

04

Typography

05

Voice

A neighbor behind a counter: plain, specific, helpful before you ask. Short sentences. Real details over adjectives.

06

Graphics

Three devices, all borrowed from the counter: packing tape, a departures board and a shipping label.

07

Photography

Only real photos of this store. No stock, no AI images, no carrier press shots.

• Sources: the store's own uploads to its Google profile (credit "Cardiff Postal"), and customers' review photos (credit first name, last initial, "Google review").
• Blur before publishing: licence plates, carrier drivers caught in passing, third-party window ads, every shipping label and customs form, any child's face or name, and the USPS eagle wherever the store's own signage shows it legibly (the We Ship window poster, the counter mat, and the carrier logo row on the drop-off poster at the counter, whose DHL, UPS and FedEx marks stay), so no photo carries a readable USPS logo or four-logo strip. Carrier trucks keep their own markings, and a USPS mark too small to read in a wide shot stays as photographed. The pipeline is _source/photos/process-photos.js; check every blur at 100% with check-redactions.js.
• Never use: the old-hours door photos, the realtor's business card, the volleyball poster, the Class of 2020 yard signs (minors, previous owners' era).
• Crop out the novelty signs on the retail wall.

08

The website

Next.js, every page prerendered, phone first. Three live islands: the open/closed status, the pickup board and the tracker. No backend, no forms that post, nothing to break.

09

Hard rules

1. Notary (Tex. Gov't Code 406.017, 406.024). Never "notario" or "notario publico". Show the "not an attorney" notice. Any non-English notary ad needs that notice and the fee schedule in English and in that language. Fees may not exceed $10 for the first signature, $1 for each additional.
2. Mailboxes (USPS DMM 508, 608). Addresses use PMB: 4031 FM 1463 RD STE 40 PMB 123. Never "Suite 123" or "Ste 40-123". Never claim a mailbox helps local search (Google forbids mailboxes as business locations) or hides a home address.
3. Carriers. Names as plain text, never logos, never a four-logo strip. FedEx Authorized ShipCenter® with the ®. No USPS program name until confirmed. Never "post office". USPS copy says "USPS shipping"; every page that promotes USPS carries "Cardiff Postal is an independent shipping store, not a U.S. Post Office." No page title starts with USPS. DHL is never implied to be domestic: body copy and descriptions say DHL Express international; only a title or H1 with no room for it names DHL alone beside the other carriers. Any confirmed charge on top of USPS postage, or a stamp price above face value, goes on /usps in a plain line the same day.
4. Passport photos (8 FAM 402.1). No "guaranteed" or "certified". "Taken to current State Department rules" only.
5. Reviews (FTC 16 CFR 465 and 255). Word for word or not at all. Say they are picks, show the one-stars in the histogram, link to all of them. No review or rating structured data.
6. Facts. Nothing unconfirmed goes live: no prices, no turnaround times, no founding year, no staff names, no mailbox access hours. A customer review alone never supports a service claim.
7. Copy. No em dashes or en dashes. Credits in the footer exactly as set, in that order.

10

Facts

Checked twice, independently, on 25 September 2026. Full notes: _source/research/02-business-facts.md.

11

For the owner

Open questions. Until each is answered, the site leaves that detail out or uses the most careful value.

1. Carrier times: the board shows each carrier's own published latest drop-off (FedEx Ground and DHL 3:30 PM, UPS and FedEx Express 4:00 PM, weekdays only) and USPS as the store's posted 5:00 PM truck pickup (1:30 PM Saturday). The old website listed later times. Are the carriers' listings right, or should they be corrected in each carrier's portal?
2. Holiday closures for the rest of 2026 and 2027. Until then, federal holidays show call to confirm (lib/hours.ts holidayWatch); confirmed closures go in closures.
3. The script-and-globe logo as a full-size file (vector if possible), to replace the typeset stand-in and the CP icon.
4. Notary: this store's fee, which days a notary is in, whether walk-ins are fine, and whether the fee schedule is posted at the counter (Tex. Gov't Code 603.008).
5. Passport photos: price, whether a digital copy is included, which other countries' photos are offered.
6. Mailbox rental: sizes, terms, prices, whether arrival notices are sent as a rule and how (customer reviews and the old site's template text mention them), and access hours (the site says nothing about access hours on purpose).
7. Is the store enrolled as a USPS Approved Shipper under the current ownership? Until then the site shows no USPS badge, and the USPS eagle on the window poster, the counter mat and the drop-off poster at the counter is blurred in its photos.
8. Can (281) 394-5778 receive text messages? If yes, a Text us button goes on every page.
9. OK to keep the 25 quoted Google reviews and the customer photos on the site, each credited by first name and initial?
10. Domain: move cardiffpostal.com from RS Websites to this site (renews 10 Dec 2026; the Google Workspace email records must stay)?
11. Shredding, key cutting, magnets, custom crates and custom-built boxes for oversized items, bulk mailing: offered or not? None appear on the site until confirmed.
12. Staff names (the owner and team) are left off the site; say if any should be named.
13. USPS: stamps at face value or more, and any charge on top of USPS postage? USPS QR code returns? Money orders? Until answered, /usps and the home strip leave stamps, QR codes and money orders out (and /shipping leaves out stamps). Any confirmed charge on top of USPS postage, or a stamp price above face value, goes on /usps in a plain line the same day.
14. Payments: which card brands, tap to pay, cash? The site's data says only credit and debit cards. Before Google reset it, the profile listed debit, credit, NFC, Visa, Amex, MasterCard, Diners and Discover: still right?
15. Landmark: OK to say next to Little V? Only the same shopping center is verified.
16. Seen only in customer reviews: help carrying heavy boxes, a call when a label won't scan, yard and listing signs. Offered as a rule? (Custom-built boxes and arrival notices are asked above, with crates and mailboxes.)

12

History

1. v1.6

   Google Search Console: the site is verified for sales@mysticmediafilm.com with an HTML file at /googlee9729ac101d082a0.html (leave it in place, or verification lapses).

2. v1.5

   SEO pass from the September 2026 market report: a /usps page for USPS searchers with the independent-store notice first (stamps, QR codes and money orders held for the owner), a Here for USPS? strip on the home page, a passport appointment block, three sourced guides (PMB address, DS-3053, 2026 holiday deadlines), directions on /visit, store-first titles and descriptions, breadcrumbs and FAQ data, a fuller Store record (Maps link, description, photos, cards), unconfirmed offer lines removed, and the We Ship window poster's USPS eagle and outdated UPS Access Point tile, and the lawyer ad in the window, blurred in the storefront and entrance photos and the share card, and the USPS eagle on the counter mat (packing, supplies, boutique and counter mat photos) and on the drop-off poster's carrier logo row (QR returns photo); carrier trucks keep their own markings. DHL is named alone only where a title or H1 has no room; body copy says DHL Express international.

3. v1.4

   Pickup board corrected to FedEx's own published latest drop-offs for this store (Express 4:00 PM, Ground 3:30 PM, weekdays only), so every carrier row but USPS now shows the carrier's own cut-off; Saturday shows USPS only.

4. v1.3

   Second live check: the tape's black backing now follows its tilt so no sliver shows even on ultra-wide screens; the Swipe hint and the Open-now dot no longer move (only the tape does); the Swipe hint hides for mouse users; the 4.9 score draws a partly filled fifth star; empty star-chart rows stay empty; the notary photo shows the whole NOTARY sign on desktop; mistyped links preview as Page not found; /Privacy keeps campaign tags; shorter /track title.

5. v1.2

   Live on cardiffpostalkatytx.com, then polished after a five-lane check of the live site: star rows drawn as one graphic each (lighter first layout), a landscape notary hero, a real favicon.ico and apple-touch icons, the old /Privacy address redirected, a week of browser caching for photos, shorter search titles and descriptions, and this bible's own link preview. Per Anthony: no pause buttons, the footer plain black with no stripes or divider lines, and every sideways row (both review rows and the photo strips) swipes by thumb or drags by mouse and never moves on its own.

6. v1.1

   After two independent reviews (facts and phone testing): the pickup board labels each time as a carrier drop-off cut-off or a store truck pickup, unconfirmed federal holidays say call to confirm, ratings carry their date, review replies credited to the store (some predate the current owner), claims narrowed to their sources, the phone menu fixed after scrolling, a pause button on the tape, and 44px tap targets.

7. v1.0

   First edition, written with the rebuilt website on 25 September 2026: the store, the sign as the brand, colour, type, voice, graphics (tape, pickup board, shipping label), photography rules, the website system, hard compliance rules, sourced facts and the open questions for the owner.