This part of ISO 9276 specifies rules and nomenclature for the description and quantitative representation of particle shape and morphology. To achieve a more comprehensive description of a particle or particle system, particle size information can be used together with other information but, in most cases, the particle size information cannot be replaced.

The averaging of shape over all particles in a sample has been shown to be an ineffective approach. Distributions of other particle characteristics are required in addition to particle size distributions (see ISO 9276-1).

The relevance, to technological applications, of any method of representing particle shape is the deciding factor in its use. Therefore this part of ISO 9276 is restricted to methods which can be correlated with physical properties in industrial applications.

The aim of particle analysis is to determine the most appropriate characterization method for a particular application. This implies a profound understanding of the relationship between particle characteristics and macroscopic product and process properties (or at least a database of broad empirical data).

Problems of shape and morphology would normally be three-dimensional problems, but most definitions in this part of ISO 9276 are in fact given for two dimensions because of the widespread use of image analysis methods.

With the help of the evaluation criteria given in Clause 4, a minimum set of shape descriptors is derived in Clause 8 from the various descriptors and methods in Clause 5, enabling a direct comparison of different shape analysis equipment or methods to be made within the limits discussed in Clause 6.