Choosing a Bar Code

How do you choose a bar code? It can be quite confusing. Some industries use a standard bar code type. If that's the case for you, all you need to do is buy the proper bar code set. For example, if you are interested in putting bar codes on retail packages or books, the choice of a bar code is simple. Retail packages in North America require a UPC-A bar code while European retail articles use the EAN bar code. Book ISBN numbers use the Bookland bar code (an EAN 13 bar code with a 5 digit supplement).

But what if your industry hasn't selected a specific bar code type? The choice of a bar code can also be determined by what kind of data you want to encode. Some bar code symbologies only encode numbers (bar code 2/5 interleaved, EAN, PostNet, and UPC) while other bar codes only encode a fixed number of digits (EAN 8, EAN 13, and UPC-A). There are also some bar code types let you encode both numbers and upper case letters (bar code 3 of 9 and bar code 93) or even the complete ASCII character set (bar code 128).
  There are other limitations that can affect your choice of a bar code. For example, before you can use a UPC , Bookland, or EAN bar code you must purchase a specific manufacturer's number or range of numbers.

In the United States, UPC-A and UPC-E manufacturer's product codes must be purchased from the Uniform Code Council. You pay them a fee and they assign a range of numbers to you. (The first 6 digits of your UPC code.) This assignment by the UCC keeps manufacturers from duplicating each other's numbers.

European Article Numbering (EAN) codes are assigned by the International Article Numbering Association. Finally, book numbers are assigned by the ISBN Agency.

Descriptions of many popular bar code symbologies appear below. You can use these descriptions to determine if a particular bar code can handle the type of data you need to encode and whether or not a checksum is required.

Bar Code
2 of 5
Bar Code 2 of 5 Available In:
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Unix/DOS/AS400
Bar Code 2 of 5 was developed in the late 1960s. It encodes only numeric data (the numbers from 0 - 9) and has a low print density. It is used in airline tickets, photo finishing, and warehouses. Bar codes can be of variable length and don't use a checksum. Bar code 2 of 5 is no longer widely used.
  • Encodes: Numeric Only
  • Length: Variable
  • Checksum: None

Bar Code
2 of 5
Interleaved
Bar Code 2 of 5 Interleaved Available In:
Bar Code 2/5 Interleaved, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Unix/DOS/AS400
Bar Code 2 of 5 Interleaved is a high density numeric bar code. It can encode only pairs of numbers (the bar code must have an even number of digits). Each bar code pattern encodes the odd digit in the pattern of bars and the even digit in the pattern of spaces between bars. To encode an odd number of digits you must pad the left most digit with a zero. Bar codes can be of variable length and don't normally use a checksum, although a modulo 10 check character is used in some special situations. Partial scans are possible since bar code 2 of 5 interleaved is not self checking. Fixed length data fields or bearer bars are often used to circumvent this problem. ITF-14 and GTIN-14 are variations of this bar code used on shipping containers. We offer both standard and human readable versions of this font.
  • Encodes: Numeric Only
  • Length: Variable, but must have an even number of digits
  • Checksum: Optional

Bar Code
3 of 9
Bar Code 3 of 9 Available In:
Bar Code 3 of 9, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Unix/DOS/AS400
Bar Code 3 of 9 is a self checking, medium density, alpha-numeric bar code. It was the first alpha-numeric bar code developed and is the most widely used (non-retail) bar code. To make a bar code you simply surround your data with the Start/Stop character (the *). The standard version encodes 43 characters: A-Z, 0-9, space, and -.$/+%. A Full ASCII version is available (provided your bar code reader supports it) that can encode the entire ASCII character set, but at the cost of print density. Bar codes can be of variable length and don't normally use a checksum (a few industries use an optional modulo 43 checksum). We offer both standard and human readable versions of this font. The Health Industry Bar Code (HIBC)   is a variation of this bar code.
  • Encodes: Only 43 characters: 0-9, A-Z, and space $%+-./
  • Length: Variable
  • Checksum: Optional

Bar Code
93
Bar Code 93 Available In:
Bar Code 93, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Bar Code 93 was introduced in 1982 and was designed to complement bar code 3 of 9. Generally, bar codes 3 of 9 and 93 can be mixed together and automatically read. Bar code 93 is a high density alpha-numeric bar code that also supports a Full ASCII version without the ambiguity of the 3 of 9 bar code. The standard version can encode 47 characters: A-Z, 0-9, plus "-", ".", " ", "$", "/", "+", "%", and 4 special characters for Full ASCII mode. Bar codes can be of variable length and require a checksum. We offer both standard and human readable versions of this font.
  • Encodes: Only 47 characters: 0-9, A-Z, and space $%+-./ plus 4 special characters for Full ASCII encoding
  • Length: Variable
  • Checksum: Required

Bar Code
128 UCC / EAN
Bar Code 128 Available In:
Bar Code 128, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Bar Code 128, Unix/DOS/AS400
Bar Code 128 is a high density alpha-numeric bar code. It has 106 different characters and three subsets, A, B, & C, which are just different ways of interpreting the data encoded by the bar code. SCC-14, SSCC-18, and GS1-128 are other variations of bar code 128. Using the subset A or B Start code you can encode the entire ASCII character set, including control codes. With a subset C Start code you encode high density numeric data. Bar code 128 requires a checksum. Bar codes can be of variable length, although subset C requires an even number of digits. We offer both standard and human readable versions of this font.
  • Encodes: Full Alpha-Numeric plus high density numeric mode
  • Length: Variable
  • Checksum: Required

Bookland Bookland Available In:
EAN Bar Codes, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
The Bookland bar code is a special version of the EAN 13 bar code. Your ISBN number is translated into an EAN13 bar code. An optional five digit supplemental code can be added to encode the book price.
  • Encodes: Numeric Only
  • Length: Fixed Length, 13 plus 5 digits
  • Checksum: Required

Codabar Codabar bar code Available In:
Codabar, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Codabar was developed in 1972 and is used by libraries, blood banks, and air parcel services. Codabar is a low density numeric bar code. It covers 16 characters: 0-9, plus "-", ".", ":", "$", "/", and "+". The use of four separate Start and Stop characters allows useful information to be encoded by characters normally considered as overhead. Bar codes can be of variable length and do not require a checksum. We offer Codabar with a wide to narrow ratio of 3, allowing the most widely readable bar codes. Our set includes both standard and human readable versions of this font.
  • Encodes: Only the characters: 0123456789-.:,$/+ABCD
  • Length: Variable
  • Checksum: None

EAN 8 / 13 EAN 8 and 13 Available In:
EAN Bar Codes, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
The European Article Numbering system, EAN, was introduced in 1978. The two different versions of EAN bar codes, EAN 8 and EAN 13, encode 8 and 13 digit numbers respectively. A special version of the EAN 13 bar code with a 5 digit supplemental code is used to encode ISBN numbers on all books. This bar code is called Bookland.
  • Encodes: Numeric Only
  • Length: Fixed Length, 8 or 13 digits
  • Checksum: Required

PostNet PostNet bar code Available In:
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Unix/DOS/AS400
The PostNet bar code was developed by the U.S. Post Office to encode Zip Code information. It differs from other bar codes in that information is conveyed by the height of each bar code character. Postnet is a numeric bar code with a fixed length and a checksum. Note that standard bar code readers can not read the PostNet bar code. Also note that while we supply a scalable TrueType PostNet font, it must be used at a fixed size to be readable by the Post Office.
  • Encodes: Numeric Only
  • Length: Variable
  • Checksum: Required

UPC-A
UPC-E
UPC-A bar code sample Available In:
UPC Bar Codes, Windows
Bar Codes Plus, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Windows
Bar Codes and More, Unix/DOS/AS400
The UPC bar code is used in North America to identify products in a retail environment. UPC-A is a fixed length bar code that always contains 12 digits. The first 6 or more digits are assigned by the Uniform Code Council. The remaining digits are used to identify a product. The remaining digit is a checksum. The UPC-E bar code is a shortened version of UPC-A to use when space is not available for the standard UPC-A code. UPC bar codes may be read from either right to left or left to right. While our UPC bar codes come in a scalable TrueType font format, certain size restrictions apply to its use.
  • Encodes: Numeric Only
  • Length: Fixed Length, 12 or 7 digits
  • Checksum: Required