Buying standards — the purchase path

This page walks you from finding a standard to handing the order off to checkout. The actual checkout — payment options, discounts on the total — is covered separately in the Checkout guide.

iTeh sells standards three ways from the same catalog:

PDF document — a permanent license to read the standard. Added to your library, available forever.
Printed document — a paper copy shipped to your address.
E-Library — a per-document, time-limited reading window with an optional AI Chat add-on. Cheaper than the PDF when you only need the standard for a defined period. See the E-Library guide for the full picture.

You can mix all three in the same order — for example, buy permanent PDF licenses for your team's two reference standards, an E-Library read for a third you only need for this quarter, and a printed copy for your shelf.

If you're looking at recurring access to an entire body or ICS scope (rather than purchasing one document at a time), look at Subscriptions — it's a different and often dramatically cheaper path.

1 — Find the standard

Use the search bar, or browse by issuing body, ICS classification, project relations, or the curated catalog. The standard's page shows the abstract, scope, related standards, lifecycle history, and the purchase panel.

2 — Add to cart

On the standard's page you'll see one button per available product type:

Add to cart — the permanent PDF license.
Add to e-Library — opens an interval picker (month, quarter, year… options vary by standard) and an Include AI Chat toggle, then adds the chosen E-Library read to the cart.
Order printed copy — the paper edition, shipped.

Clicking any of these drops the item into the cart with quantity = 1 and updates the cart counter in the header.

3 — Add licenses (quantity)

Each line in the cart has a − / + control next to the quantity. For PDF documents, quantity = number of permanent licenses — buying a quantity of 5 gets your team 5 separate license seats for the same standard, all attached to the purchasing account.

Click + to add one more license.
Click − to remove one. Reducing to zero takes the item out of the cart entirely (the remove button to the right does the same in one click).

E-Library reads default to a quantity of 1 — they're personal read-windows, not multi-seat licenses. To put an E-Library read into multiple readers' hands, give each reader their own E-Library purchase or look at a Subscription instead.

Printed documents accept higher quantities — useful if you need several physical copies for a working group or library shelf.

4 — Watch the volume discount kick in

As you add licenses, the cart silently checks the active volume discount rules and applies the best one automatically. You'll see a small % badge on the line item once a tier triggers (hover for the discount's full name and the savings).

Volume discounts apply per line, not across lines, so a single line with 10 licenses will typically beat ten single-license lines for the same total quantity. If you're buying multiple copies of one standard, buy them on a single line.

A separate item discount badge can also appear on the line — those are publisher-driven promotions that already apply to the document regardless of quantity. Both discounts can stack on the same item.

5 — Review the cart

Open the cart from the header (basket icon, top right). The cart shows every line item, the current quantity, the unit price after discounts, and the line subtotal. The totals panel at the bottom adds shipment (if you have a printed item), the consolidated discount amount, and applicable taxes.

Double-check:

Quantity of each line.
E-Library access intervals if you have any — those can't be changed after checkout without re-purchasing.
The AI Chat toggle for each E-Library line, if applicable.

6 — Proceed to checkout

When the cart looks right, click Checkout in the cart header. You land on the checkout page where you'll pick the billing account, enter any coupons or PO numbers, and complete payment.

The full breakdown of what happens at checkout — payment options, how discounts combine, what arrives in your library afterward — is in the Checkout guide.

After purchase — what arrives in your library

The moment the order is paid:

PDF documents appear in Account → My Documents under their permanent license. They stay there forever — no expiry, no renewal — and re-download is unlimited.
E-Library reads appear in My Documents with their access window highlighted. They expire automatically at the end of the window; nothing renews on its own.
Printed documents are queued for shipment; you'll receive a separate email once the package leaves the warehouse.
Invoices for every order are downloadable from Account → Orders.

Tips

Buy by line, not by line count. A single line with quantity 10 triggers volume discounts that ten separate lines of quantity 1 do not.
Compare PDF vs. E-Library before clicking. A short E-Library window can be a fraction of the PDF price; a long one approaches the PDF price. The catalog shows both — let the math choose.
Keep an eye on the discount badges. They're the only signal that volume tiers fired; if you expected a discount and don't see the badge, double-check the quantity is on a single line.
Don't forget the AI Chat toggle. It's a per-purchase choice for E-Library reads — toggle before adding, you can't flip it after.
Permanent PDFs are forever. Once a PDF license is in your library, it's yours regardless of subscription state, account changes, or future pricing — re-download for life.