Which Bar Code Do You Need?
How to choose a barcode

How do you choose a bar code?

What is the best bar code to use? Are there specific types of bar codes that are required for specific applications? Are some bar codes easier to use than others? Find answers to all of your questions on this site. There are detailed explanations of how each bar code works and complete specifications for popular bar codes. The web page also contains an interactive bar code guide. Simply answer the questions on the page, and the guide will tell you which bar code fits your application.
It is not as difficult as it seems to choose a bar code. Specific bar codes are used in certain industries. There are certain types of data that require a specific bar code format. Finding the bar code you need should only take a few minutes. The information on this site can help you narrow down the choices, or you can use our interactive bar code selector to choose the bar code that best suits your needs.

As soon as you decide which bar code to use, you need to find a way to apply it to your packaging or your bar code labels. Bar code fonts are the most flexible way to print bar codes since they can be used in almost any Windows program. (And bar code fonts can also be used in Unix, DOS, or on AS/400s.)

You can find software for creating bar codes by selecting any type of bar code to the right. There is also a link to a trial version of that bar code software, a user manual, and a way to purchase and download the product.

If you need to buy a UPC code assignment check out My Bar Code Store.


Quick Bar Code Specifications:

  Bar Code 2/5 interleaved: high density numeric, variable length, no checksum

  Bar Code 39: partial alpha-numeric, variable length, no checksum

  Bar Code 93: partial alpha-numeric, variable length, two checksums required

  Bar Code 128: alpha-numeric, plus numeric, variable length, checksum required

  Bookland: fixed length numeric, checksum required, encodes ISBN and price

  Codabar: numeric plus four alpha characters, variable length, no checksum

  EAN 8: 8 digit numeric, checksum required

  EAN 13: 13 digit numeric, checksum required, for retail products in Europe

  GTIN-14: fixed length numeric, checksum required, Another name for ITF-14

  HIBC: fixed length numeric, checksum required, Health Industry Bar Code

  ISBN: fixed length numeric, checksum required, encodes ISBN and price

  ITF-14: fixed length numeric, checksum required, encodes GTIN

  SCC-14: Shipping Container Code, based on UPC

  SSCC-18: Serial Shipping Container Code, based on UPC and tracking number

  UPC-A: 12 digit numeric, checksum required, for retail products in North America

  UPC-E: 6 digit numeric, checksum required, for retail products in North America


How to select a bar code How to select a barcode How to choose a bar code How to choose a barcode

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