Business letters: Letterhead

A letterhead is the heading that appears at the top of a business letter; it is a standard part of any letter written on behalf of an organization. (See Business letters: Model letter in recommended format.)

In contrast, a business letter written by a person on their own behalf usually doesn’t contain any letterhead.

The letterhead identifies the sender’s organization and generally contains the following information about the organization:

• the logo or visual signature
• the address
• the telephone number
• the email address
• the website address

Example of a corporate letterhead:

Canadian federal government letterheads are bilingual and must be designed in accordance with the guidelines established by the Treasury Board Secretariat in the Design Standard for the Federal Identity Program (opens in new tab).

Example of a federal letterhead:

For information on the order in which the official languages should appear in a bilingual federal government letterhead, see the section Order of the official languages in signatures (opens in new tab) on the page Treatment of the official languages: Design Standard for the Federal Identity Program (opens in new tab).

Note: If the sender’s address doesn’t appear in the letterhead, include a return address below the letterhead or below the signature. (For more information, see the article Business letters: Return address.)

Additional information

• Correspondence and addresses – Guidelines and resources
• Business letters: Model letter in recommended format
• Business letters: Return address
• Addresses: Addresses in letters or other documents

Other resources

• Design standard for the Federal Identity Program (opens in new tab) (Treasury Board Secretariat)
• Treatment of the official languages: Design Standard for the Federal Identity Program (opens in new tab) (Treasury Board Secretariat)
• Stationery (opens in new tab) (Treasury Board Secretariat)