HOW TO READ A BRAND

With approximately 7000 brands registered in the province of BC, it is not difficult to imagine the different descriptions used for the same brand. The following descriptions should help one in describing a brand in the correct manner.

When reading a brand it is important to remember it must be read from left to right or from the top character to the bottom character.

is called a rafter when it is above a character and an inverted rafter when below a character. Beside a character would be a half diamond or .

A quarter circle above a character is called quarter circle points up or quarter circle points down .

Slashes are described as a slash in this position .

A horizontal bar beside or between two characters is called a running bar.

Characters can be registered in a lazy position such as which is lazy left. Most of these are in the lazy left position.

Characters that are upside down are referred to as inverted.

Brands where the characters are connected are referred to as connected, is called connected. Characters that are connected at the bottom such as would be called hanging connected.

Some older brands have a character inside such as or . The brand would be read with the outside character first and the inside character last, an would be referred to as inside.

Since brands were first registered there have been many changes to the legal registering of a brand. There are some characters that are not necessarily above or below in the above-mentioned descriptions but you would still read the characters as the guideline outlines. For instance there are some quarter circles above a letter with the points down or a rafter below a character . The BC Brand Registration goes back to the early 1900's and since its inception there have been symbols used as brands. They do not conform to any standard description so the description is based upon what the brand looks like, a is called a goalpost, an is called arrow right. There are some brands that have written letters, these are called script, such as is a script or is a script .

There are other variations but the above-mentioned descriptions would cover nearly every brand in B.C.

Below are some brands and their descriptions that we use. It will help you become familiar with the reading of brands if you go over it.

LT	Lazy F Left D	S Slash S	L over J
Quarter Circle points up over C	Rafter over J	K over Quarter Circle points down	Half Diamond D
Bar over S	T over inverted Rafter	L hanging T connected	A E connected