New Users’ Manual and FAQs

The fifth and latest edition of the ISBN Standard was published in December 2017. To coincide with this release, we have prepared the new, seventh edition of the ISBN Users' Manual and a Frequently-Asked Questions document. The Users’ Manual is the definitive guide to the ISBN Standard and system. The FAQs provide quick advice on some of the key aspects of ISBN and, in some cases, there are links directly back to the Users’ Manual for further information. The English-language versions of both documents can be found here:

• Users’ Manual

• FAQs document

Last update: 2018

Translations of the Users’ Manual will be made available as and when they are ready. Links to these translations will be added to the list below:

• Chinese (Simplified)

• Croatian

• Filipino

• Finnish

• French

• German

• Maltese

• Polish

• Serbian

• Slovene (includes a special introduction for publishers in Slovenia and provides details of related local book trade organisations)

• Spanish

Last update: 2022

A translation of the Users' Manual is available in Danish. This is based on the seventh international edition of the Users' Manual, although some of the sections are organised differently or removed.

A translation of the Users' Manual is available in Czech. This is based on the seventh international edition of the Users' Manual, but there are differences in the organisation of text and the inclusion of Czech examples or definitions.

A version of the ISBN Users’ Manual is available in Korean. This is based on the 7th international edition of the Users' Manual, although the sections have been arranged differently and there are sections specific to ISBN usage and application in Korea Republic.

Two information sheets in Swedish are also available to download from the website of the Sweden ISBN Agency. These are not direct translations of the Users' Manual, but rather they are factsheets based on the information in the manual. The first sheet is a general information sheet about ISBN, while the second sheet contains more detailed information and guidelines relating to the application of ISBN for ebooks.

The published versions of the previous edition of the ISBN Users' Manual remain available. If you don't see a translation of the seventh edition of the Users' Manual above, or if you need to look at past versions of the Users' Manual for any other reason, please click here to visit the webpage containing the relevant links.