ISO/IEC 8859 consists of several parts. Each part specifies a set of up to 191 graphic characters and the coded representation of these characters by means of a single 8-bit byte. Each set is intended for use for a particular group of languages.

ISO/IEC 8859-7:2003 specifies a set of 188 coded graphic characters identified as Latin/Greek alphabet. This set of coded graphic characters is intended for use in data and text processing applications and also for information interchange. The set contains graphic characters used for general purpose applications in typical office environments in at least the following languages: English, Greek, and Latin.

This set of coded graphic characters may be regarded as a version of an 8-bit code according to ISO/IEC 2022 or ISO/IEC 4873 at level 1. ISO/IEC 8859-7:2003 may not be used in conjunction with any other parts of ISO/IEC 8859. If coded characters from more than one part are to be used together, by means of code extension techniques, the equivalent coded character sets from ISO/IEC 10367, or their corresponding G1 sets from the ISO International Register of Coded Character Sets to be Used with Escape Sequences, should be used instead within a version of ISO/IEC 4873 at level 2 or level 3.

The coded characters in this set may be used in conjunction with coded control functions selected from ISO/IEC 6429. However, control functions are not used to create composite graphic symbols from two or more graphic characters (see Clause 6).

NOTE ISO/IEC 8859 is not intended for use with Telematic services defined by ITU-T. If information coded according to ISO/IEC 8859 is to be transferred to such services, it will have to conform to the requirements of those services at the access-point.