At the end of 2015, ISO 780 “Graphical symbols for handling and storage of packages” was revised and republished. The 17 symbols were modified to comply with the design rules of IEC 80416-1 “General principles for graphic symbols on equipment and devices – Part 1: Design of graphic symbols for registration”.

The careful revision is almost only recognizable by the shape of the negation cross. However, it is rather doubtful whether exactly this change, although conforming to the standard (IEC 80416-1, 7.9), has been good for the recognizability, because the negation cross is now symmetrically placed on the symbol elements and thus can hardly be distinguished from them. ISO 80416-3 and section 6.5 offer a solution to this problem, that is to interrupt intersecting lines.

ISO/TC 122, on the other hand, obviously forgot to adapt the representation of the force by closed arrows to ISO 80416-2 (Table 1). According to the standard, a force is represented by an arrow as an outline. Just a detail? Of course! But only if symbol designers follow the rules of their environment can the recognition of the symbol be guaranteed or increased by such determinants (graphic element that is used again and again with the same meaning), such as the representation of a force with an arrow as an outline.

It worked better for the “Do not roll” icon (ISO 780:2015-09). Here, the arrowheads from ISO 80416-2 (Table 1) were correctly implemented because this is a motion indicator and therefore the arrowheads should not be used to indicate speed as in ISO 780 of 1999.