International standards

A ‘machine readable identity document’ must comply with currently established international standards. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has set out these standards in Document 9303 ‘Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD)’. The Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) is the first machine readable element.

The MRZ is located on the front or the back of an MRTD. The MRZ contains part of the data in the visual inspection zone – a series of alphanumeric characters and the filler characters (<).

To ensure the MRZ can be read effectively, the ‘Optical Character Recognition’ (OCR) type B font type was selected.

Because every country issues its own documents, there is a rather considerable diversity of documents. This not only applies to the design. The international document specifications contained in ICAO Document 9303 provide for a certain degree of uniformity thus simplifying the inspection process to some extent.

• TD1 – 86 mm x 54 mm
• TD2 – 105 mm x 74 mm
• TD3 – 125 mm x 88 mm

Increasingly more countries are issuing electronic identity documents. These e-ID documents are equipped with an electronic chip and are recognisable from a chip logo on the document. The use of a chip allows for automated verification.