ISO/TR 12033:2009 gives information to enable a user or electronic image management (EIM) integrator to make an informed decision on selecting compression methods for digital images of business documents. It provides technical guidance to analyse the type of documents and which compression methods are most suitable for particular documents in order to optimize their storage and use.

For the user, ISO/TR 12033:2009 provides information on image compression methods incorporated in hardware or software in order to help the user during the selection of equipment in which the methods are embedded.

For the equipment or software designer, ISO/TR 12033:2009 provides planning information.

ISO/TR 12033:2009 is applicable only to still images in bit map mode. It only takes into account compression algorithms based on well-tested mathematical work.