ISO 3864 is an International Organization for Standardization technical standard for safety signs and markings in workplaces and public facilities. These labels are graphical, to overcome language barriers. The standard is split into four parts.
Parts ISO 3864 consists of four parts, that provide more specific and situation specific guidance depending on the application. ISO 3864-1:2011 Part 1: Design principles for safety signs and safety markings ISO 3864-2:2016 Part 2: Design principles for product safety labels ISO 3864-3:2012 Part 3: Design principles for graphical symbols for use in safety signs ISO 3864-4:2011 Part 4: Colorimetric and photometric properties of safety sign materials
Part 1 explains how to layout the components of safety signage, dictate the color scheme and sizing information. Part 2 covers the same concepts as part one, but specifically for labels applied on machinery, vehicles and consumer goods. Part 3 contains guidance for designing new safety symbols. Part 4 specifies the standards for phosphorescent material and colours of a sign, as well as testing to confirm these signs meets required standards.
Components of ISO 3864
Colours These are the colours specified in ISO Standard 3864-4 in RAL colour standard. Meaning RAL Name RAL Number CMYK RGB Hex Example of Colour Warning Signal Yellow 1003 5, 20, 90, 0 #F3AD1E Prohibition/Fire Equipment Signal Red 3001 20, 100, 90, 10 #9E3C3C Mandatory Signal Blue 5005 100, 40, 0, 40 #215E8F Safe Condition Signal Green 6032 90, 10, 80, 0 #31865C Backgrounds and Symbol Signal White 9003 0, 0, 0, 0 #EBEEEC Symbol Signal Black 9004 100, 90, 100, 80 #414446
In addition, ISO standard 3864-2:2016 lays out the following colours that correspond to levels of risk. This standard adds "Orange" as an incremental colour to the pallette above.
Meaning Signal word Background colour of panel Contrast colour Definition RGB Hex Example of Colour Low level of risk CAUTION Yellow Black RAL 1003 (per ISO 3864-4) #F9A900 Medium level of risk WARNING Orange Black RAL 2010, Munsell 2,5YR6/14G, or Munsell 5YR6/15G #D05D29 High level of risk DANGER Red White RAL 3001 (per ISO 3864-4) #9B2423
Arrows ISO 3864-3 defines four types of arrow designs, and specifies what situations each type should be used in. Arrow Type Arrow image Meaning Arrowhead angle in degrees General movement of objects 60° Direction of rotation 60° Movement of forces; pressures, fluids, gasses 84° Movement of people 84° – 86°
Safety markings Part 1 also provides design standards for 'safety markings', which are safety colors combined with a contrasting color in an alternating 45° stripe pattern, intended to increase the visibility of an object, location or safety message. MarkingColoursMeaningYellow/BlackIndicate location of a hazardRed/WhiteIndicate location of firefighting equipment or a prohibition.Blue/WhiteMandatory ActionGreen/WhiteSafe condition
Signage design In addition to prescribing colours for safety signage, ISO 3864 also specifies how to layout the elements of the sign: A symbol and optional 'supplemental sign' which contains the supplementary text message.
Multi-message signs For situations where more than one message needs to be communicated, ISO 3864 also provides guidance for "multiple signs", which consist of two or more symbol and text messages combined into a single sign. Additionally, fire protection and safe condition signs, which mark the location of equipment or exits can be combined with an arrow to indicate the direction to the item depicted on the sign.
Related standards The corresponding American standard is ANSI Z535. ANSI Z535.1 also explicitly uses multiple levels of hazard, including Yellow (Pantone 109) for 'caution' messages, and Orange (Pantone 151) for stronger 'warning' messages. Like ISO 3864, ANSI Z535 includes multiple sections: ANSI Z535.6-2006 defines an optional accompanying text in one or more languages.
ISO 3864 is extended by ISO 7010, which provides a set of symbols based on the principles and properties specified in ISO 3864.
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