This document specifies generic procedures for the calibration, adjustment and verification of metrological characteristics that areal topography measuring instruments have in common, as stated in ISO 25178-600.

Because surface profiles can be extracted from surface topography images, most of the methods described in this document can be adapted to profiling instruments.

Instrument-specific issues are not covered by this document. For example, for instruments based on mechanical probing where the probe follows an additional arcuate motion, additional measures are specified in ISO 25178-701.

This document does not include procedures for area-integrating methods, although those are also stated in ISO 25178-6. For example, light scattering belongs to a class of techniques known as area-integrating methods for measuring surface topography.