Vintage Letterhead Templates
Free vintage letterhead templates for Microsoft Word and Google Docs, drawn from late-1800s American mercantile and apothecary stationery — engraved scrolls, ornate borders, Western slabs, blackletter mastheads, telegram forms and botanical specimens. Sepia, oxblood and parchment, never bright.
10 designs · two formats each.
Every template ships in both Microsoft Word (.dotx) and Google Docs. The .dotx download opens in Word as a fresh document; the Google Docs link opens a copy directly in your browser.
Which of these should you use?
These are drawn rather than filtered. Nothing here is a modern layout with a sepia wash over it — the rules, scrolls and frames are built the way they were engraved, which is why they still read as old at full size instead of dissolving into texture. Sepia, oxblood and parchment throughout, and never a bright colour.
Using the telegram form as a top secret prop
A surprising share of the people looking for vintage letterhead are not writing business letters at all — they are making a prop. The Telegram / Cable Office design is the one for that. A cable form already carries the right furniture: a transmission header, a form number, an office of origin, and a body set in a monospaced face that reads as typed rather than printed.
To turn it into a special assignment or top secret dispatch, change the masthead to your agency name, put the classification where the cable office line sits, and leave the form number alone — the detail people find convincing is the bureaucratic clutter, not the word stamped across the top. Print it on cream rather than white, and if you want the aged look, a weak tea wash and a few minutes in a low oven does more than any filter. It suits escape rooms, murder-mystery evenings, spy-themed birthday parties, scavenger hunts and classroom history projects.
For ordinary use, the register still matters: an apothecary label suits a soap maker or distiller, the mercantile masthead suits a general store or a workshop, the Western slab suits a ranch or a barber, and the botanical specimen sheet suits a florist or a herbalist. All free in Microsoft Word and Google Docs, and free to edit — please just do not redistribute the files themselves.
Updated through July 2026.
Customize in two minutes.
- Pick a design and choose your editor — Microsoft Word downloads the template (a
.dotxfile; opening it creates a fresh document and leaves the original intact for next time), or Google Docs prompts you to make a copy in Drive. - Replace the placeholder tokens —
[Your Name],[Family Name],[Street Address],[Recipient], etc. Embedded graphics (monograms, crests, ornaments) can be replaced with your own — right-click → Change Picture (Word), or click → Replace image (Google Docs). - Type your letter where the sample paragraph is. Save and print on standard 8.5 × 11 paper, or send as a PDF.