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Books would cost less to post but bulky items such as posters would be more expensive under plans put forward today by the Royal Mail.

The organisation said it wanted to introduce a “fairer and simpler” pricing system based on size instead of weight.

The proposals would spark the biggest change in postal pricing since the Penny Black and could be “disastrous” in industries such as film processing, warned the postal watchdog.

Royal Mail wants the postal regulator, Postcomm, to allow it to price mail by size, rather than purely by weight. However, the price for sending three-quarters of mail would not change under these proposals.

Royal Mail’s proposals would introduce a fairer and simpler pricing system, which more accurately reflects the costs of handling mail. This is because the size and shape of most mail is a more important factor in the cost of mail sorting and delivery than weight. The changes are needed so that Royal Mail can continue to provide a one-price-goes-anywhere universal postal service, and can compete fairly with competitors in the 21st century.

Magazine publishers, greeting card makers and photograph developers are among the businesses that could be hit by a plan by Royal Mail to charge more for handling bulky items of post, rather than pricing purely by weight.

Postcomm, the postal regulator, will launch a three-month consultation on Royal Mail’s size-based pricing proposals, but have warned that the group need to provide more information to justify the changes. The group, which is expecting to return to profit in 2004 after years of heavy losses, said yesterday its proposed size-based pricing plan was “a fairer and simpler system . . . because the size and shape of most mail is a more important factor in the cost of mail sorting and delivery than weight”. Prices would be unchanged for three quarters of all mail, it said.