The MPEG-7 standard is subdivided into nine parts:
Part 1 Systems: specifies the tools (in the sense of description schemas) for preparing descriptions for efficient transport and storage, compressing descriptions, and allowing synchronization between content and descriptions.
Part 2 Description Definition Language (DDL): specifies the language for defining the standard set of description tools (Description Schemes, Descriptors, and Data Types).
Part 3 Visual: specifies the description tools pertaining to visual content.
Part 4 Audio: specifies the description tools pertaining to audio content.
Part 5 Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS): specifies the generic description tools pertaining to multimedia including audio and visual content.
Part 6 Reference Software: a software implementation of relevant parts of the standard with normative status.
Part 7 Conformance testing: guidelines and procedures for testing conformance of implementations to the standard.
Part 8 Extraction and use of descriptions: informative material (in the form of a technical report) about the extraction and the use of some of the Description tools.
Part 9 Profiles and levels: relevant parts of the standard grouped for interoperability.