ISO Graphical Symbols Booklet
The international language of ISO graphical symbols.
The international language of ISO graphical symbols is a short illustrated ISO booklet that explains public information symbols and safety signs to a general audience. It shows how the shapes and colours of safety signs work and lists the ISO standards behind them.
For signage and wayfinding
What it asks of your signs
- 01It is an awareness booklet, not a standard. Use it to brief clients and facilities staff, never as the source for a symbol's artwork.
- 02It explains the safety sign families by shape and colour: warning, prohibition, mandatory, safe condition and fire equipment.
- 03Its reference list is a useful map of the standards that matter: ISO 3864 for design rules, ISO 7001 for public information symbols, ISO 7010 for registered safety signs, ISO 22727 for designing new public information symbols, and ISO 17724 for vocabulary.
- 04For production artwork, take symbols from the current editions of ISO 7010 and ISO 7001 (or the national adoptions), and check national rules such as the Safety Signs Regulations 1996 in the UK and the General Application Regulations in Ireland.
What it is
ISO announced the booklet in March 2010. It was developed through ISO/COPOLCO, ISO's consumer policy committee, from an idea put forward by BSI, and tells the story of a family on holiday in a fictional country to show how graphical symbols help people who do not share a language. The copy held on our site is a January 2013 printing (ISBN 978-92-67-10605-2).
After the story it sets out the shapes and colours of international safety signs with examples of each type, then lists the relevant International Standards and points readers to the ISO Online Browsing Platform, where registered symbols can be previewed.
How to use it
Treat it as an introduction. It is good for explaining to a client why a fire equipment sign is a red square and a mandatory sign a blue circle, or why a symbol beats a word on a multilingual site. It is not a compliance document, and some of its background facts, such as ISO's membership and catalogue size, are dated.
The standards it lists are where the requirements live. In the UK and Ireland, safety signs are governed by national regulations that implement the EU safety signs directive, with ISO 7010 as the reference set of symbols. Public information symbols for wayfinding (toilets, lifts, information) come from ISO 7001.
Editions and history
First released by ISO in 2010; the copy held here is the January 2013 printing. ISO has not, as far as we could find, issued a newer edition, and the booklet's background facts about ISO are out of date. ISO's own download link could not be reached when we checked.
Sources checked
- iso.org/ru/news/2010/03/Ref1309.html
- ishn.com/articles/89877-free-iso-booklet-teaches-public-to-recognize-and-understand-international-graphical-symbols-3-29
A summary in our own words, checked on 16 October 2026. It is not the document itself and not legal advice.
Equivalents and related
The same ground, elsewhere.
- Graphical symbols: Safety colours and safety signs: Registered safety signsInternational
- Graphical symbols: Safety colours and safety signs, Part 1: Design principles for safety signs and safety markingsInternational
- The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996Great Britain · NI
- Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007, Part 7 Chapter 1: Safety Signs at Places of WorkIreland
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