[1] In the USSR, it was the most common table of its kind, and as of 2008[update] its use is still widespread in several post-Soviet states.

[3] The left part consists of series of the Cyrillic letters Ш, Б, М, Н, К, Ы, and И in a definite order, and the right part of the table consists of a series of Landolt C symbols.

The width of each character is equal to its height, and the contours have standard 1⁄5 gaps of the overall size.

The value V, indicated to the right, gives the minimum visual acuity needed to read the row from a distance of 5 meters.

Black and white pattern identification at 1 arcminute angle is considered to be visual acuity of 1.0, which is around 1 mm per 3.44 m distance.