ISO Guide 78:2008 presents rules for the drafting and presentation of International Standards dealing with machinery safety and safety components and their revisions, primarily to achieve consistency and acceptable quality of the various standards to be prepared.

It also gives requirements on the criteria for the selection of new work items and for procedures to prepare, produce or revise standards in an efficient and effective way.

ISO Guide 78:2008 gives requirements that are additional to the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, when this is necessary owing to the special requirements of machinery safety standards and standards for safety components.

ISO Guide 78:2008 is primarily intended for the drafting of type-C standards. It is also applicable to the drafting of type-B standards; however, the foreseeable variation in the format of these standards prevents general application. When its requirements are specific to type-B standards, this is indicated.