Understand your prescription
The optician prescription might seem a bit complicated, but it's actually quite simple! Eyeglass prescriptions may differ in format depending on your optician and country.
Though, an eyeglass prescritopn is more or less universal, as opticians worldwide use the same procedures when writing a prescription.
Below you will find an example of a common standard prescription.
The prescription is divided into right (OD) and left (OS) eye. The next line indicates the various prescription terms.
SPH
Your power, plus (+) or minus (-).
CYL
Indicates the amount of astigmatism.
AXIS
Indicates the location of astigmatism.
PD
Your pupillary distance (e.g. 63 or 32/21)
ADD
Reading addition for close-range vision.
Example 1
Standard vertical prescription layout, with one column for the right eye and one for the left eye. The first column from the left always refers to the right eye.

Example 2
Standard horizontal prescription layout, with one row for the right eye and one for the left eye. The top row always refers to the right eye.

Example 3
Horizontal layout of the glasses slip, with the use of symbols for the various values. See explanation of these values further up this page, or full explanation at the bottom of the page.

Optical vocabulary
Sphere (SPH): the degree of farsightedness (hypermetropia - you see worse at close range) or nearsightedness (myopia - you see worse at far distance) you need to have corrected to see clearly.
Cylinder (CYL): the degree of crooked cornea (astigmatism). This tells how much weaker one cut in the glass must be to correct the bias. If you do not have a crooked cornea, this will be empty, 0 value or have the "value" NONE.
Axis (AXE): only appears if there is a value in the Cylinder (CYL) box, i.e. here the direction of the previous section's strength axis is specified in the range from 0 to 180 degrees.
Addition (ADD): sees worse at close range and has problems reading small print. An extra strength is added in the lower part of a multifocal lens(se progressive glasses).
Pupilledistanse (PD): groove slip must also state the distance between the lenses' optical centers PD (Pupillary Distance). The distance is given in millimeters. The distance is indicated either in one value on the glasses label (e.g. 63), or as two values, one too far and one too close.
Visus (VIS): no relevant values for grinding glass! Visus is the resolving power of the eye. If you have the right glasses, you will get maximum vision. How good vision you have is individual and it is the strength of the glass that affects vision, not which glasses you have. For example, to get a driver's license the Visa requirement is 0.5. This means that you must be able to read a license plate from a distance of 20 metres.
Prisme (PRS): indicates any vision errors, if the right and left eyes are not aligned, and the value of necessary correction.
Base (BAS): indicates the direction in which the prisms are set.
If you have other information on an eyeglass label - these are values we do not need to sharpen eyeglass lenses.