ISO/IEC 24754:2008 provides the minimum requirements for specifying document rendering systems.

It can apply to the document processing environment, where a document is given in a logically structured format which is expressed by a structure markup language, and the visual representation of the document is described by means of the external style and layout specifications which a style and layout specifications language provides. The visual representation of the given document is generated when the style and layout specifications are applied to the logical structure by a document rendering system.

ISO/IEC 24754:2008 provides an abstract list of the features that a rendering system for an authored document may have. The list provides a frame of reference, against which the user and implementor can compare the features of document rendering systems. However, ISO/IEC 24754:2008 does not specify a concrete interchange syntax or direct how each document rendering system shall behave.

It provides the minimum requirements to specify the features that a document rendering system which transforms formatting objects to rendering output. It may be used as a frame of reference, against which the user, implementer, or software agent may compare the features of a document rendering system. According to these requirements, the user may express what they expect of a document rendering system, the implementer may describe the functionality and capability of the document rendering system that they implement, and the software agent may negotiate a minimum set of functionality and capability that are shared across different document rendering system implementations.