ISO 3864-1:2002 establishes the safety identification colours and design principles for safety signs to be used in workplaces and in public areas for the purpose of accident prevention, fire protection, health hazard information and emergency evacuation. It also establishes the basic principles to be applied when developing standards containing safety signs.

ISO 3864-1:2002 is applicable to workplaces and all locations and all sectors where safety-related questions may be posed. However, it is not applicable to the signalling used for guiding rail, road, river, maritime and air traffic and, generally speaking, to those sectors subject to a regulation which may differ.

It is important to note that the colours represented in the electronic file of ISO 3864-1:2002 can be neither viewed on screen nor printed as true representations. Although the copies of ISO 3864-1:2002 printed by ISO have been produced to correspond (with an acceptable tolerance as judged by the naked eye) to the colour requirements, it is not intended that these printed copies be used for colour matching and it is necessary to refer to the colorimetric and photometric properties specified in ISO 3864-1:2002. References are also provided from colour order systems for information.