Treatment of the official languages: Design Standard for the Federal Identity Program

On this page

• Visual equality
• Order of the official languages in signatures
• Formats
• Use of other languages
• Supporting tools

Visual equality

In a department’s corporate identity, the 2 official languages must be treated with equal prominence, including their use of the same colours, style, size and type.

Order of the official languages in signatures

The official languages must appear in a side-by-side, bilingual form in all corporate and ministerial signatures.

The order of the official languages in signatures is determined by factors such as location, language of content, and distribution, as outlined below. If there are several conflicting requirements in a given situation, the order of official languages in the signature is determined by the department’s head of communications.

• English appears to the left of French in signatures when:
  • the content of the item is English only
  • the content of the item is in a bilingual side-by-side format with English to the left of French
  • the office issuing the item is located outside the province of Quebec
  • the signature identifies the English portion of an item produced in a bilingual tumble format
  • the item is intended for national or government-wide use and distribution
  • the item is physically located (for example, signage) or operates (for example, motor vehicles) outside of the province of Quebec
  • the content is in a language other than English or French
• French appears to the left of English in signatures when:
  • the content of the item is French only
  • the content of the item is in a bilingual side-by-side format with French to the left of English
  • the office issuing the item is located in the province of Quebec
  • the signature identifies the French portion of an item produced in a bilingual tumble format
  • the content of the item is of particular importance to the Francophone community (for example, Jeux de la Francophonie)
  • the item is physically located (for example, signage) or operates (for example, motor vehicles) in the province of Quebec
• In the National Capital Region
  • For motor vehicles and department-issued clothing used in the National Capital Region, the order of official languages on opposing vehicle doors and on uniform shoulder flashes may be alternated.

Formats

• In this section

  • Bilingual format
  • Separate versions in each language

Messaging in a product must be presented in one of the following 2 ways:

• bilingual format
  • side-by-side: the official languages appear next to each other
  • over‑and‑under format: the official languages are displayed one above the other
• separate versions in each language

Use of other languages

The Canada wordmark and titles used in signatures must not be translated into another language. They must appear in English and French only.

However, additional languages can be added to messaging on products. The additional languages must appear either to the right of (see Figure 1) or below the English and French (see Figure 2).

Messaging in all languages must be visually equal.

Figure 1. Third language (C) to the right of the 2 official languages (A and B)

Figure 2. Third language (C) below the 2 official languages (A and B)

Supporting tools

• Directive on Official Languages for Communications and Services