About StandardsDB

StandardsDB is a reference guide to 106 technical standards that shape daily life: management systems such as ISO 9001, internet protocols from TCP to TLS 1.3, connectors from RS-232 to USB-C, media formats, character codes, screw threads, paper sizes and the shipping container. 8 of them are legacy or superseded standards kept for their historical importance.

What each entry contains

Every page gives the issuing body, the domain, the year the standard was first published and its current status or edition, with a short account of what it does. The first publication year refers to the original standard, which is often decades older than the edition in force; where a standard grew out of earlier work, such as SQL at IBM or JPEG in the 1980s, the description says so.

Standards numbers and bodies

Designations follow the issuing body’s own form, so ISO/IEC joint standards keep both names and IETF specifications are cited by RFC number. Many standards are published by more than one body: Ethernet by IEEE and ISO/IEC, H.264 by ITU-T and ISO/IEC MPEG, NFC by ISO/IEC and Ecma. Entries are grouped under the body most associated with the standard.

Sources and corrections

Numbers, titles and dates were checked against the issuing bodies’ catalogues, RFC indexes and standard references. Standards are revised constantly, so a status line may lag a new edition; corrections are made as they are found.

Collection by standards body

Collection by domain