For correct presentation, the 10 digits of an ISBN must
be divided, by hyphens, into four parts:
- Part 1: The country or group of countries identifier
- Part 2: The publisher identifier
- Part 3: The title identifier
- Part 4: The check digit
The position of the hyphens are determined by the publisher
prefix range established by each national agency in accordance
with the industry needs. The knowledge of the prefix ranges for
each country or group of countries is necessary to develop the
hyphenation output program.
The publisher prefix ranges in the
English group (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc)
are as follows:
Group If Number Ranges
Identifier "0" are Between Insert Hyphens After
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
00------------19 00-19 1st digit 3rd digit 9th digit
200-----------699 20-69 " 4th " "
7000----------8499 70-84 " 5th " "
85000---------89999 85-89 " 6th " "
900000--------949999 90-94 " 7th " "
9500000-------9999999 95-99 " 8th " "
Group If Number Ranges
Identifier "1" are Between Insert Hyphens After
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
00------------09 00-09 1st digit 3rd digit 9th digit
100-----------399 10-39 " 4th " "
4000----------5499 40-54 " 5th " "
55000---------86979 5500-8697 " 6th " "
869800--------998999 8698-9989 " 7th " "
9990000-------9999999 9990-9999 " 8th " "
The following table gives the range distribution of the group identifiers:
0 - 7
80 - 94
950 - 993
9940 - 9989
99900 - 99999
The following table is an example of the range distribution of publisher
prefixes. Assuming a group identifier of one digit only, the publisher
identifier ranges might be as shown in the left hand column and the title
identifiers as shown in the right hand column.
Publisher Identifier Numbers Available for
Title Identification
00-19 1 000 000
200-699 100 000
7000-8499 10 000
85000-89999 1 000
900000-949999 100
9500000-9999999 10
Hyphenation Instructions