ISO 15924


ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, is an international standard defining codes for writing systems or scripts. Each script is given both a four-letter code and a numeric code.
Where possible the codes are derived from ISO 639-2, where the name of a script and the name of a language using the script are identical. Preference is given to the 639-2 Bibliographical codes, which is different from the otherwise often preferred use of the Terminological codes.
4-letter ISO 15924 codes are incorporated into the IANA Language Subtag Registry for IETF language tags and so can be used in file formats that make use of such language tags. For example, they can be used in HTML and XML to help Web browsers determine which typeface to use for foreign text. This way one could differentiate, for example, between Serbian written in the Cyrillic or Latin script, or mark romanized or transliterated text as such.

Maintenance

ISO appointed the Unicode Consortium as the Registration Authority for the standard. The RA is responsible for appointing a registrar who works with a Joint Advisory Committee in developing and implementing the standard. The registrar from 2004 to 2018 was Michael Everson, and from January 2019 the registrar has been Markus Scherer of Google. The JAC consists of six members: one representative of the RA, one representative of ISO 639-2, one representative of ISO/TC 37, one representative of ISO/TC 46, and two representatives of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2.

Script codes

Numeric ranges

Two four-letter codes are reserved at the request of the Common Locale Data Repository project:
This list of codes is from the ISO 15924 standard.

Relations to other standards

The following standards are referred to as indispensable by ISO 15924.
For definition of font and glyph the standard refers to
  • ISO/IEC 9541-1:1991
Around 160 scripts are defined in Unicode. Through a linkpin called "Property Value Alias", Unicode has made a 1:1 connection between a script defined, and its ISO 15924 standard. See Script.