How do you choose a bar code?

How do you select which bar code to use? Is one bar code easier to use than another? This site will answer all your questions. There are detailed explanations of what each bar code does and complete specifications for all popular bar codes. There is also an interactive bar code guide- just answer the questions on this web page and the guide will tell you which is the right bar code for your application.

Choosing a bar code is not as hard as it might seem. Some industries use specific bar codes. Some types of data require a specific bar code format. It should only take only a few minutes to find the bar code you need. Use the information on this site to narrow down the choice of bar codes, or use our interactive bar code selector to select the bar code that best fits your requirements.

Once you determine which bar code to use, you need to find a way to include those bar codes in your packaging or on your bar code labels. The most flexible way to print bar codes is to use a bar code font since they will work in almost any Windows application. (And bar code fonts can also be used in Unix, DOS, or on AS/400s.)

To find software to create bar codes, simply select and click on one of the bar code types to the right. The specification page includes links to trial versions of that bar code, a user manual, and an easy way to puchase 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

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


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