National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN IEC 60757:2021. It is identical to IEC 60757:2021. It supersedes BS 7645:1993, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee GEL/3, Documentation and graphical symbols.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 August 2021.

FOREWORD

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all interested IEC National Committees.
IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any services carried out by independent certification bodies.
All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC Publications.
Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

IEC 60757 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 3: Documentation, graphical symbols and representations of technical information. It is an International Standard.

It has the status of a basic safety publication in accordance with IEC Guide 104.

This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition published in 1983. This edition constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous edition:

codes restricted to letter codes;
removed old unnecessary notes;
added a new subclause on alternating colours of the same item;
added Annex A with examples of colours and their corresponding RGB (red, green, blue) encoding.

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in the above table.

The language used for the development of this International Standard is English.

This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/standardsdev/publications.

The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to the specific document. At this date, the document will be

reconfirmed,
withdrawn,
replaced by a revised edition, or
amended.

IMPORTANT — The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 21 July 2021. CENELEC members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CENELEC member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

The text of document 3/1486(F)/FDIS, future edition 2 of IEC 60757, prepared by IEC/TC 3 “Documentation, graphical symbols and representations of technical information” was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as EN IEC 60757:2021.

The following dates are fixed:

This document supersedes HD 457 S1:1985 and all of its amendments and corrigenda (if any).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CENELEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national committee. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CENELEC website.

Endorsement notice

The text of the International Standard IEC 60757:2021 was approved by CENELEC as a European Standard without any modification.

1 Scope

This document specifies letter codes for designation of colours and provides rules for their combination to designate colour combinations. The letter codes are intended to be applied in the technical documentation of electrical installations, electrical equipment and products, and in markings of electrical equipment and products.

This basic safety publication focusing on safety essential requirements is primarily intended for use by technical committees in the preparation of safety publications in accordance with the principles laid down in IEC Guide 104 and ISO/IEC Guide 51.

It is not intended for use by manufacturers or certification bodies. One of the responsibilities of a technical committee is, wherever applicable, to make use of basic safety publications in the preparation of its publications. The requirements of this basic safety publication will not apply unless specifically referred to or included in the relevant publications.

This document does not specify any requirements for the encoding of colour properties, nor for their visual representation. Such requirements are under the responsibility of the different technical committees.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Letter codes for colours

5 Application of colour designations

5.1 Multiple colours on the same item

5.2 Alternating colours of the same item

5.3 Colours on different subitems of an item

BS EN IEC 60757:2021

Code for designation of colours

Current

Published:

31 Aug 2021