ISO/IEC 24757:2008的目标是协调机器可读键盘描述（PC、PDA、各种操作系统等）方面的行业实践。）.它进一步旨在促进为用户生产可互操作的驱动器，并通过提供物理键盘布局和几何配置与操作系统及其应用程序可用的逻辑接口之间的更精确的映射来更好地帮助用户。 ISO/IEC 24757:2008提供了一种正式的描述格式，不仅可以完整地描述国际键盘标准，还可以描述当前和未来市场上键盘的功能及其与相应操作系统的功能。它描述了键盘按键之间可能的交互，并标准化了键盘描述，使其成为机器-可读，同时保持相对容易被人类解释。 键盘描述格式旨在能够描述当今键盘硬件及其相关软件的现有功能，以及可预见的扩展。它依赖于国际标准格式ISO SGML，其形式称为ISO RELAX NG，可以轻松转换为行业标准XML。涵盖了一些附加功能，例如具有可编程键的键盘和具有多个键分配的键盘，例如电话键盘。 键盘定义格式主要用于操作系统，以及在其引导过程中（例如在BIOS中）使用，但也可以用于其他目的，例如从键盘的硬件报告以帮助操作系统配置键盘驱动程序，或者在屏幕上向用户呈现键盘。友好的图片。 键盘定义格式分为四个部分: 键盘标识和一般特征部分，包括品牌和型号、序列号、键盘适用的国家或地区和语言、雕刻语言标识以及显著特征，如浮雕或键上的灯光。 硬件几何布局，它指示一个很大程度上已知的几何布局，如102键PC键盘。本节还提供物理信息，如键的大小和激活键所需的压力。 键盘布局，它给出了每个键的实际字符分配。 组合键，它给出键的组合，如受死键影响的字符的组合。 描述了许多现有的键盘定义格式，以及这些描述格式与ISO/IEC 24757:2008中定义的格式之间的映射。

The goal of ISO/IEC 24757:2008 is to harmonize industry practices in matters of machine-readable keyboard descriptions (PCs, PDAs, various operating systems, etc.). It further aims to facilitate the production of interoperable drivers for the user and to better assist the user by offering a more precise mapping between the physical keyboard layout and geometrical configuration, and the logical interface available to the operating system and its applications. ISO/IEC 24757:2008 provides a formal description format that can not only fully describe the international keyboards standards, but also the capabilities of keyboards on the current and future marketplace and their functioning with corresponding operating systems. It describes possible interactions between keys of a keyboard and standardizes the keyboard description so that it is machine-readable while staying relatively easy to interpret by human beings. The keyboard description format is meant to be capable of describing existing capabilities of today's keyboard hardware and its associated software, plus foreseeable extensions. It relies on international standard format ISO SGML, in the form known as ISO RELAX NG, with an easy conversion to industry standard XML. Some additional functionality is covered, such as keyboards with programmable keys and keyboards with multiple key assignments such as telephone keypads. The keyboard definition format is primarily intended to be used by the operating system, and during its boot process (e.g. in the BIOS), but can also be used for other purposes, such as reporting from the hardware of a keyboard to help the operating system configuring the keyboard driver, or to present the keyboard on screen with a user-friendly picture. The keyboard definition format is described in four sections:

1. a keyboard identification and general features section, including make and model, serial number, country or region and language to which the keyboard applies, engraving language identification, and distinctive features, such as relief, or presence of lights on keys.
2. the hardware geometry layout, which indicates a largely known geometry layout, such as a 102-key PC keyboard. This section also gives physical information such as size of keys, and amount of pressure needed to activate keys.
3. the keyboard layout, which gives the actual assignment of characters to each key.
4. key combinations which gives combinations of keys, such as those of characters affected by dead keys.

A number of existing keyboard definition formats are described, together with a mapping between these description formats and the format defined in ISO/IEC 24757:2008.