This standard is Part 1 of a series of documents that specify a general-purpose format for the storage and/or communication of information in bulk form. The format is named the Archive eXchange Format (AXF). The format described is intended both for interchange between systems and to serve as a native format within systems.

This standard identifies two major categories of data storage media and specifies the basic structures of data stored on those Storage Media Types. It specifies a number of structural elements for use in constructing the appropriate structures for use on each of the Storage Media Types. It defines the semantics of data contained within fields specified for use in the structural elements. The structural elements themselves are documents coded in the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and this document defines an XML Schema Description (XSD) file for use in formulating the XML documents to be used for the structural elements of AXF Objects.