NIST Special Publication 800-104

DRAFT

A Scheme for PIV Visual Card

Topography

January 2007

U.S. Department of Commerce

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary

.

I N F O R M A T I O N S E C U R I T Y

National Institute of Standards and Technology

William Jeffrey, Director 

William MacGregor

Teresa Schwarzhoff

Ketan Mehta

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8930

Technology Administration

Robert C. Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for

Technology

NIST Special Publication 800-104

DRAFT

A Scheme for PIV Visual Card

Topography

January 2007

U.S. Department of Commerce

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary

.

I N F O R M A T I O N S E C U R I T Y

National Institute of Standards and Technology

William Jeffrey, Director 

William MacGregor

Teresa Schwarzhoff

Ketan Mehta

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-8930

Technology Administration

Robert C. Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for

Technology
Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

REPORTS ON COMPUTER SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY

The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 

promotes the U.S. economy and public welfare by providing technical leadership for the Nation’s measurement 

and standards infrastructure. ITL develops tests, test methods, reference data, proof of concept 

implementations, and technical analyses to advance the development and productive use of information 

technology. ITL’s responsibilities include the development of management, administrative, technical, and 

physical standards and guidelines for the cost-effective security and privacy of non-national security-related 

information in Federal information systems. This special publication 800-series reports on ITL’s research, 

guidelines, and outreach efforts in information system security, and its collaborative activities with industry, 

government, and academic organizations. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-104, 9 pages 

(January 2007) 

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Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

Acknowledgements 

The authors, William MacGregor and Teresa Schwarzhoff of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 

(NIST) and Ketan Mehta of Mehta Inc, wish to thank their colleagues who reviewed drafts of this document and 

contributed to its development. The authors gratefully acknowledge and appreciate the support received from

US Government Printing Office (GPO), US Department of Defense (DoD), Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB), General Services Administration (GSA), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Interagency

Security Committee (ISC) in developing this document. 

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Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

Table of Contents

1. Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Authority...................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Purpose and Scope .................................................................................................... 1

2. Color-coding for Employee Affiliation .............................................................................. 2

2.1 Zones 15 and 12 ......................................................................................................... 2

2.2 Zones 13 and 14 ......................................................................................................... 4

2.3 Color Representation .................................................................................................. 4

3. References .......................................................................................................................... 5

List of Figures 

Figure 1. Employee Affiliation Color-coding................................................................................. 2

Figure 2. Foreign National Color-coding...................................................................................... 3

List of Tables 

Table 1. Color Representation..................................................................................................... 4

 

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Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

1. Introduction 

1.1 Authority

This document has been developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in furtherance 

of its statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002, 

Public Law 107-347. 

NIST is responsible for developing standards and guidelines, including minimum requirements, for providing 

adequate information security for all agency operations and assets, but such standards and guidelines shall not 

apply to national security systems. This recommendation is consistent with the requirements of the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Section 8b(3), Securing Agency Information Systems, as 

analyzed in A-130, Appendix IV: Analysis of Key Sections. Supplemental information is provided in A-130, 

Appendix III. 

This recommendation has been prepared for use by Federal agencies. It may be used by non-governmental 

organizations on a voluntary basis and is not subject to copyright. Nothing in this document should be taken to 

contradict standards and guidelines made mandatory and binding on Federal agencies by the Secretary of 

Commerce under statutory authority. Nor should this recommendation be interpreted as altering or superseding 

the existing authorities of the Secretary of Commerce, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, or any 

other Federal official. 

1.2 Purpose and Scope 

The purpose of this document is to provide additional recommendations on the Personal Identity Verification 

(PIV) Card color-coding for designating employee affiliation. Compliance with this document is voluntary, 

however, a department or agency shall not claim compliance unless it adheres to all requirements of this 

document. This document is not intended to contradict requirements specifically identified in Federal 

Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) or its associated documents, nor to limit options permitted by

FIPS 201 except as explicitly stated herein. This document is intended to refine FIPS 201 to enable reliable 

visual verification of the PIV Card. 

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Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

2. Color-coding for Employee Affiliation 

2.1 Zones 15 and 12 

This section provides a color-coding scheme for Zones 15 and 12 to describe employee affiliation using FIPS 

201 color designations. Figure 1 illustrates use of Zones 15 and 12 to color-code employee affiliation. 

Doe

John, G.

United States Government

Color

Photograph

Contact 

Chip

Affiliation

Contractor

Agency/Department

Department of

Homeland Security

Emergency Response Official

Expires

2010FEB24

Doe

John, G.

United States Government

Color

Photograph

Contact 

Chip

Affiliation

Contractor

Agency/Department

Department of

Homeland Security

Emergency Response Official

Expires

2010FEB24

Zone 15 – Colorcoding for employee

affiliation

41.5

50

Zone 12 – Footer

Arial 7pt Bold

(Emergency Response example shown)

Zone 14 –

Expiration date

Format YYYYMMMDD

Arial 10pt Bold

Figure 1. Employee Affiliation Color-coding 

Zone 15 shall be color-coded using one of the following colors: 

+ Blue—Foreign National 

+ White—Government employees 

+ Green—Contractors 

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Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

Note that the foreign national, when used, has precedence over the government employee or contractor. 

If an agency needs to highlight emergency response officials, Zone 12 shall be used to identify these affiliations. 

The department or agency must print “Emergency Response Official” with white lettering within a text box with 

red background. 

If a department or an agency does not need to highlight emergency response officials and would like to denote 

country of citizenship, Zone 12 may be used to denote citizenship. If so used, a department or an agency shall 

print the country name or the three letter country abbreviation (alpha-3 format) in accordance with ISO 3166-1, 

Country Codes. [ISO 3166] If so used and an applicant is a US citizen with multiple citizenships, US citizenship 

shall be depicted in Zone 12. Figure 2 illustrates an example of foreign national color-coding using country 

abbreviations. 

Doe

John, G.

United States Government

Color

Photograph

Contact 

Chip

Affiliation

Contractor

Agency/Department

Department of

Homeland Security

Expires

2010FEB24

GBR AUS

Doe

John, G.

United States Government

Color

Photograph

Contact 

Chip

Affiliation

Contractor

Agency/Department

Department of

Homeland Security

Expires

2010FEB24

GBR AUS

Figure 2. Foreign National Color-coding

When both emergency response official and country name need to be depicted in Zone 12, the emergency

response official affiliation takes precedence. 

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Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

2.2 Zones 13 and 14 

Zone 13, issue date, shall be absent or contain the card issuance date data label printed in Arial 5pt and the issue 

date printed in Arial 6pt Bold. 

Zone 14, expiration date, shall contain the card expiration date data label printed in Arial 5pt and the expiration 

date printed in Arial 10pt Bold. 

2.3 Color Representation 

Table 1 provides quantitative specifications for colors in four color systems. The colors are specified in the 

Pantone1

, RGB (Red Green Blue), sRGB (IEC 61966-2-1, Color management – default RGB color space), and 

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key or ‘blacK’) systems. [IEC 61966] Since the card body is white, the 

white color-coding is achieved by the absence of printing. Note that [FIPS 201] requires the presence of one or 

more security features that may overlap colored or printed regions, thus modifying the perceived color. In the 

case of colored regions, the effect of overlap shall not prevent the recognition of the principal color by a person 

with normal vision (corrected or uncorrected) at a working distance of 50 cm to 200 cm. 

Table 1. Color Representation 

Color Zone Pantone Color CueTM RGB Value {R,G,B} sRGB Value 

(IEC 61966-2-1) 

CMYK Value 

{C,M,Y,K} 

White 15 {255, 255, 255} {255, 255, 255} {0, 0, 0, 0} 

Green 15 354C {51,162,61} {124, 209, 134} {80, 0, 90, 0}

Blue 12 299C {42,142,191} {113, 197, 224} {85, 19, 0, 0}

Red 12 032C {253, 27, 20} {254, 92, 79} {0, 90, 86, 0}

 

1

 Pantone is a registered name protected by copyright laws. 

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Special Publication 800-104 A Scheme for PIV Visual Card Topography

3. References 

[FIPS 201] Federal Information Processing Standard 201-1, Change Notice 1, Personal Identity Verification 

(PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors, March 2006. (See http://csrc.nist.gov) 

[IEC 61966] IEC 61966-2-1:1999. Multimedia systems and equipment - Colour measurement and 

management - Part 2-1: Colour management - Default RGB colour space - sRGB

[ISO 3166] ISO 3166-1:2006. Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions --

Part 1: Country codes. 

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