Germany - China Standards Information Portal

Cards which serve as information carriers and means of identification have become an
integral part of modern everyday life. It is hard to imagine an alternative to the hundreds of millions of cards used in the banking and health sectors, or to the millions of electronic passports already in circulation.

Almost as diversified as the fields of application of identification cards is their architecture. From physical dimensions to substrate consistency and type of storage medium, the requirements placed on the cards differ depending on their application.

This document gives an overview of existing standards dealing with identification cards and illustrates the interrelationship among these standards.