What the register is
A crosswalk. Each of the 3,037 test methods in it is recorded once, with the numbers other standards bodies give to the same method listed against it, and the relationship between them stated rather than implied.
It exists because the same test has a different number in every country a garment passes through. A buyer in Europe names the ISO method, the mill’s laboratory in India reports against the Indian one, and the third-party laboratory the buyer trusts uses the American one. All three may be the same test. Sometimes they are not, and the difference is the reason a shipment gets rejected.
What it is not: it does not reproduce any standard’s text, and it never will. Standards are copyrighted documents and you buy them from the body that issued them. What is recorded here is metadata — numbers, titles, editions, status, and how they map to one another.
Who the bodies are
The acronyms on every record are the organisations that publish standards. They are not competing versions of the truth; most of them adopt each other’s work, which is exactly what a crosswalk records.
- ISO International Organization for Standardization International
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The international consensus standard, and usually the one a crosswalk is filed under. Textile test methods sit in technical committee TC 38.
- ASTM ASTM International United States, widely cited elsewhere
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Test methods and specifications across materials; textiles are committee D13. Frequently named in North American buyer specifications.
- AATCC American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists United States, widely cited elsewhere
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The reference for colour fastness, dyeing and finishing test methods. If a lab report grades shade change or staining, it is often against an AATCC method.
- BIS Bureau of Indian Standards India
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India’s national standards body. Its standards are numbered IS, and many textile ones are adoptions of the ISO method.
- SAC Standardization Administration of China China
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China’s national standards body. GB standards are mandatory; GB/T standards are recommended, and most textile test methods are GB/T.
- JIS Japanese Industrial Standards Japan
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Japan’s national standards, maintained by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee.
Official site nothing filed under it yet
- CEN European Committee for Standardization Europe
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Publishes EN standards, which member countries adopt under their own prefixes — the same document appears as BS EN, DIN EN and NF EN.
- AS-NZS Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand Australia and New Zealand
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Joint standards numbered AS/NZS, published by the two national bodies together. Australian consumer law makes some of them mandatory by naming them in an information or safety standard, and it names a fixed edition, so a later revision is not picked up automatically.
- DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung Germany
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Germany’s national standards body. A DIN EN number is the European standard adopted in Germany, not a separate test.
Official site nothing filed under it yet
What IDT, MOD and NEQ mean
Every equivalence on a record carries one of three codes, taken from ISO/IEC Guide 21 rather than invented here. This is the most consequential thing on the page: it is the difference between a laboratory report you can accept and one you cannot.
- IDT
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Identical — technically and structurally identical
Treat them as the same test. A report against one is a report against the other, and either number can be named in a specification.
- MOD
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Modified — with declared technical deviations
The same test with declared deviations — a different liquor ratio, a different number of steel balls, a different conditioning time. Read the deviation on the record before accepting a report against the other number, because the deviation is where the argument will be.
- NEQ
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Not equivalent — related in subject only
Related in subject only. Do not substitute one for the other; a report against one says nothing about the other.
The three reasons people come here
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You are holding a number
A tech pack, a purchase order or a test report names a standard and you need to know what it is and what else it is called. Paste it into the resolver on the register — any body’s number lands on the crosswalk that covers it, whichever body issued it.
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A laboratory reported against a different one
The specification says one number and the report says another. Find the record and read the code. IDT settles it; MOD tells you what to check before you accept it; NEQ means the report does not answer the question.
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You are writing a specification
Name one method and list its equivalents, so a supplier in another country does not have to guess which of their own numbers you will accept. That guess is where most avoidable disputes start.
What the labels on a record mean
Provisional — not yet verified. The crosswalk was drafted from public standards-catalogue metadata and has not been checked by a named reviewer. Treat the codes as a starting point and confirm them against the issuing bodies before relying on them in a contract.
Not yet checked: EN, DIN, JIS. A body listed this way has not been looked at for that record. An absent row does not mean no equivalent exists — it means nobody has confirmed one, which is a different claim and the register will not make the stronger one.