the invention is a method and system for printing a postage meter indicia from a data processing system . the printing of the indicia is under control of an indicia control in an object linking and embedding environment . the method begins with instantiating an indicia control in the design application that will utilize the object control for indicia printing . the indicia control is attached to an application window for use by the application . once established , the control will be passed a set of postage meter data from an interoperatively linked postage meter . the interface is enhanced by displaying an envelope representation on a monitor screen to a system operator , wherein the envelope display comprises design fields and wherein one of the design fields is a representation of the postage indicia . the postage indicia additionally comprises postage meter data such as available funds , a transaction value , and a postage meter identification . additional parameters which may be set by transferring data from linked routines include : a date ; a zip code ; and a postage value . the envelope design fields comprise : a return address field ; a destination address field ; and , optionally , a postnet barcode and / or an advertising slogan . the method then continues with the printing of the postage indicia to the application file and subsequently to an envelope . printing to the application , as opposed to an indicia file , causes decrementing of the funds available to the data processing system by an amount equal to the postage value in the printed indicia .