This European Standard specifies a recommended procedure for the development of specifications for applications of digital postage marks (DPMs) – i.e. applications linked to the use of digital printing and image data capture technologies in the postal industry, most particularly for the evidencing of postage accounting and/or payment. It is not intended to prescribe or to recommend any particular architecture or design for such applications, only to specify the process through which such an architecture or design should be developed. The document covers only requirements and considerations relating to applications that use digital postage marks, on individual postal items, as a means of communicating data (messages). The clause on design covers only the design of the digital postage marks themselves. It does not cover other aspects of design, including the possible use of other messages, transported by other means (e.g. statements of mailing), to provide for the communication of additional data, even though these might be just as important.