This communication addresses the problem of tuning a PID controller for step response. The tuning is based upon a First Order Plus Time Delay (FOPTD) model and aims to achieve a step response specification while taking into account robustness considerations. The industrial ISA-PID formulation is chosen. A tuning rule is derived first where the four parameters of the ISA-PID are determined by means of two new parameters: one parameter is related to the desired closed-loop time constant and the other one to the robustness level. On a second step, these two parameters are set to a fixed value in order to get a simple and automatic rule that directly gives the controller parameters in terms of the process model parameters. The proposed automatic tuning rule is compared with other known tunings. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.