Addressing Standards

I see a lot of mail. And it amazes me how everyone seems to follow their own addressing conventions when writing out a postal address. It’s even more amazing, given that (at least) Canada and the USA have postal addressing standards.

For example, in Canada, the Canada Postal Guide has these guidelines:

• Addresses should be written in upper case; however, mailers may wish to use lower case due to individual preference or other considerations.
• Postal codes should be printed in upper case with the first three elements separated from the last three by one space (no hyphens). If the postal code is not formatted in this manner, the mail may be delayed.
• The municipality, province or territory, and postal code should always appear on the same line. There should be one space between the municipality, province or territory and two spaces between the province or territory and postal code.
• Characters in the address block should not be underlined.
• Punctuation should not be used unless it is part of a proper name, (ST. JOHN’S). However, mailers may wish to use punctuation due to individual preference or other considerations.
• Accents may be used as they are an integral part of language but they are not considered to be punctuation.
• The # symbol should never be used, nor the French equivalent no as part of the address.
• All lines of an address should be formatted with a uniform left margin and should be less than 40 characters per line, excluding spaces.
• Space between address lines should be at least 0.5 mm but no more than one blank line between lines of addressing.
• All characters should be larger than 2 mm and smaller than 5 mm from the top to bottom (10 to 12-point). Return addresses may use smaller characters and should not be larger than the destination address.
• Only non-proportional fonts (characters which occupy the same width) should be used. The following are examples of acceptable fonts: OCR B, Letter Gothic, Elite, Lotus Line-Draw, MS Line Draw, Courier, Courier New, Pica and Copy Pica.
• Return addresses should be formatted in the same fashion as the destination address, and located in the top-left corner of the mail piece, clearly separated from the destination address, or on the back of the mail piece at the top. The return address is mandatory on Priority Courier, Xpresspost, Expedited Parcel and Regular Parcel items.

The USPS has similar guidelines:

• Print or type your address in the upper left corner on the front of the envelope.
• Use a stamp, postage meter or PC Postage to affix the correct amount. Use our online Calculator to calculate postage rates.
• Print clearly the delivery address parallel to the longest side of the package. Do not use commas or periods.

Maybe it’s related to why so few websites use W3C standards.

As some examples, for the record, here’s how I would write two former addresses of mine, a numbered street and a named street:

KIM SIEVER
4-12991 100 AV
SURREY BC  V3T 1G9

KIM SIEVER
69 MCGILL BLVD W
LETHBRIDGE AB  T1K 3V7