The EAN barcode is primarily used in supermarkets to identify product at the point of sales. The products contain the EAN number or GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) to identify itself. The standard EAN/GTIN product code has 13 digits. For smaller sized products there is a short version of the… Read More
UPC-A, GTIN-12, UPC-E The UPC A code is the standard version of the UPC code and has 12 digits. It is also called UPC 12 and is very similar to the EAN code. The structure of the UPC A code is as follows: The first digit of the UPC A code says what the… Read More
The Royal Mail 4 State Customer Code (RM4SCC) was created for automated mail sorting processes. It normally codes the postcode and the house or mailbox number in a machine readable format. The contents of the code may vary in different countries. Read More
The QR code is a modern square 2D code. The marks in three of the four corners of the matrix provide the orientation. The code is well known by the mobile tagging for cell phones. Which of the numerous types should I use to create a QR Code?If you have… Read More
PZN (Pharma-Zentral-Nummer) is a code for medicine identification in Germany and maybe other countries. In Germany it’s issued by the Informationsstelle für Arzneispezialitäten GmbH, Beethovenstr. 51-53, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The PZN is based on Code39. The last digit is a check digit. It uses the Code39-start sign “*” in combination… Read More
The PostNet (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique) is a code by the US Post Office. It encodes the zip of the addressee in a machine readable format. This improves the speed of sorting and delivering the mail. The PostNet barcode is constructed as follows: Start character Data Check digit Stop character The check… Read More
The PDF417 is a 2D barcode. It is based on stacked barcodes. The characters are coded in code words. A code word consists of 17 modules, which consist respectively of 4 strokes and 4 spaces. The PDF417 is a very compact and flexible code with variable length. Up to 1108… Read More
The MSI Plessey barcode has been designed by the Plessey Company, England in 1971. It has been used in libraries and stores. The code can display only the number 0-9 and has no fixed length. Today this type of code is outdated and is no longer used. Because of this… Read More
The Leitcode is a numeric code using the numbers 0..9. This code is used by the Deutsche Post AG (DHL). The base of this code is Code 25 Interleaved, but with a different check digit. Structure of the Leitcode:1..56..89..1112..1314ZIP codeStreet’s code numberHouse numberProduct codeCheck Digit… Read More
JAN (Japanese Article Numbering) is another name for the EAN-13 barcode. The first two digits – the country code – must be 45 or 49 (Japan). Use the EAN-13 barcode type to create a JAN barcode… Read More
The ITF-14 barcode is used to create the Shipping Container Symbol. This code is used to mark cartons and palettes that are including goods with an EAN-13 code. One digit is added in front of the EAN-13 code to mark the packing variant. The first digit is the “Logistic Variant”, also named… Read More
The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) serves the short unmistakable identification of sequentially appearing publications, e.g., magazines. The ISSN is nearly similar to the ISBN for books. The ISSN exists of 8 digits, which are split by a hyphen in two groups of 4 digits. The hyphen itself has no… Read More
The ISMN (Internationally Standard Music Number) is used for marking printed musical publications. It was conceived in 1993 and today it is applied in in 48 regions and countries. The construction of an ISMN:An ISMN has always 10 digits. It is built up as follows: The ISMN begins with the… Read More
ISBN numbers are the international order numbers for books. You find more general information to the ISBN code on the ISBN overview page. The ISBN-13 Dual is a sub type of the ISBN code which was used in the transition period (01.01.2006-31.12.2006) from ISBN-10 to ISBN-13. Read More
ISBN numbers are the international order numbers for books.You find more general information to the ISBN code on the ISBN overview page.The ISBN-10 is a sub type of the ISBN code which was used up to the 12/31/2005.
ISBN numbers are the international order numbers for books.You find more general information to the ISBN code on the ISBN overview page.The ISBN-13 is a sub type of the ISBN code which is used since 01/01/2007.
The Identcode is a numeric code using the numbers 0..9. This code is used by the Deutsche Post AG (DHL). The base of this code is Code 25 Interleaved, but with a different check digit. Structure of the Identcode:1..23..56..1112Mail center (outgoing)Customer codeDelivery numberCheck digit… Read More
The GS1-DataMatrix is a special form of the DataMatrix. It’s used for goods and palettes in commerce and industry. There can be coded more than one data field inside one barcode. For example a food palette gets a barcode with the product number (e.g. the EAN 13 number) and additional the weight… Read More
EAN-Velocity is a special form of the EAN-8. It always starts with a zero. Six numbers follow and the check digit. This code is internally used by dealers for products that have no EAN-13 or EAN-8 code from the producer. Today this code is mostly unnecessary, as all producers of goods… Read More
The GS1-128 is a special form of the Code 128. It’s used for goods and palettes in commerce and industry. The name GS1-128 replaces the old name EAN/UCC 128. There can be coded more than one data field inside one barcode. For example a food palette gets a barcode with the product number… Read More
EAN-99 is a special form of EAN-13 which just starts with “99”. EAN 99 is used as an in-store coupon. These are coupons which are good only at that particular store and are actually distributed in the store in which they will be honored.
EAN 8 is the short form of EAN-13. This code is only used if the article is too small for an EAN-13 code. The restrictions for this are very hard. An EAN-8 will only be granted if a EAN-13 will uses more than 25% of the front space of the… Read More
EAN 5 and EAN 2 are add-ons for EAN 13 and UPC-A. The EAN 2 add-on is often used on newspapers and magazines. The EAN 5 add-on is often used for the price of books together with the ISBN code. Both, the EAN 5 and the EAN 2 add-ons don’t have a check digit. Read More
The SSCC-18 (Serial Shipping Container Code) is used throughout the supply chain as an identifier for item tracing and internal control. In Germany this code is called EAN 18/NVE (Nummer der Versandeinheit). It is always 18 digits long: The first two numbers are the Application Identifier of the EAN-128: (00). You cannot change them. They… Read More
The EAN 14 code is used for traded goods. The code is always 14 numeric digits long: The first two numbers are the Application Identifier of the EAN-128: (01). The first digit is the “Logistic Variant”, also named as “Packaging indicator”. The next 12 digits are representing the product number. General this the… Read More
The DUN-14 (Distribution Unit Number) is not really a barcode type. It’s a numbering system for shipping containers that uses other barcode symbology. The DUN-14 uses the ITF-14 or the EAN-14 symbol set. Modern installations always use the EAN-14 to encode the DUN-14. A short comparison of ITF-14 with EAN-14. The number “3071234500001” is coded… Read More
One of the best known 2D codes is the Data Matrix code and it consists of 4 main components: Data area: This area contains the data in codified form. Closed limitation line: This is the corner that is represented in normal alignment to the left and below the data area… Read More
Code 93 is an alphanumeric code similar to Code 39 and can encode 48 different characters. The check digits according to Modulo 47 are not displayed in the plain text line. Code 93 Extended is based on Code 93 and can encode all 128 ASCII characters. The characters represented by Code 93 are represented… Read More
Code 39 Extended is an extended version of Code 39 that supports the ASCII character set. So with Code 39 Extended you can also code the 26 lower letters (a-z) and the special characters you have on your keyboard. The additional characters (e.g. lower case letters) are created using the existing characters… Read More
Code 39 is an alphanumeric code. Each character is built by 9 elements (5 lines and 4 spaces) where 3 are thick and 6 are thin. This allows the self checking of code 39. Code 39 does not require a build-in check digit. The main advantage is the wider character set. Code 39… Read More
Code 25 Interleaved is a special type of Code 25 that is also a numeric code able to display digits from 0 to 9. The code is also known as Code 2 of 5 Interleaved.It has no built in check digit. The advantage of Code 25 Interleaved is that the code uses self-checking… Read More
Code 25 is a very simple numeric code which is able to display digits from 0 to 9. The code is primary used in industry and is also known as Code 2 of 5 or Code 25 Industrial. Code 25 has no built in check digit. The code is some years old and it takes… Read More
Codabar is a numeric code with some additional special characters (0..9 and – $ : / . +). Codabar has no built in check digit and is primarily used for medical purposes. Read More
Code 128 Auto can encode the complete ASCII-character set. This is done by switching between all 3 character sets of Code 128: Code 128A: Includes upper case letters and control characters.Code 128B: Includes upper and lower case letters.Code 128C: Specially optimized for numbers. This code uses an internal check digit that won’t be displayed in… Read More