ITL’s Information Access Division revised the standard and managed the ANSI approval procedures for the "Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial, & Scar Mark & Tattoo (SMT) Information," ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000. This new version consolidates two previous standards published in 1993 and 1997. Two hundred federal, state, local, and international law enforcement agencies, criminal justice administrations, vendors, and other organizations participated in the development of this standard. The new standard is available in hardcopy as NIST Special Publication 500-245 and may be downloaded from the Web at www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.03/fing/fing.html.

This standard defines the content, format, and units of measurement for the exchange of fingerprint, palmprint, facial, and SMT information that may be used in the identification of a subject. Exchanged information consists of several items, including record data, digitized characteristic information, and compressed or uncompressed fingerprint, palmprint, facial, and SMT images.

This standard forms the basis for interoperability between Federal, state, local, and international users of Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) for the interchange of fingerprint search transactions. All agencies involved in the electronic transmission of fingerprint, palmprint, facial, and SMT images and related data must adhere to the format described by the standard. Dissimilar vendor equipment belonging to agencies submitting fingerprint images to the FBI must also adhere to the standard. In addition to being able to successfully submit fingerprint search transactions to the FBI, agencies that adhere to the standard can also effectively exchange fingerprint search transactions among themselves even though their systems are manufactured by different vendors. The FBI has been a supporter during the development of this standard and they required that their AFIS system vendors comply with the provisions of this standard.