Barcodes in Practice - 1D Barcodes

Barcodes in Practice - 1D Barcodes

There are more than 50 different barcode types or symbologies to choose from, the majority of which are so-called 1D barcodes but also - more recently - 2D barcodes, Postal barcodes and OMR barcodes.
The JetMobile BarDIMM Pro encodes the necessary information as bars, prints your barcode, complete with error detection and checksum. BarDIMM Pro supports 1D Barcode standards described below:

1D Barcodes1D barcodes hold a relatively small amount of data which is spread over the whole height of the barcode. The barcode contains a high degree of redundancy. This means the barcode can be read even with considerable degradation. If your application needs only a few characters (up to about 15) then a 1D barcode is probably the best solution. Increasing the height of a 1D barcode does not increase its capacity but it does increase its redundancy thus making it more resistant to degradation and obliteration and making it easier to scan. 1D barcodes have their main advantage in low capacity applications like serial numbers.

UPC-A

The standard in the USA, for items sold to the public. UPC-A contains numeric data only and encodes a 12 digit number. The first digit is the number system character, the next 5 digits are the supplier ID, the next 5 digits are the product number and the last digit is the required checksum character. You do not need to specify the checksum digit as BarDIMM recalculates it.

UPC-E

Ideal for small packages because of its data compression. It contains the same information as the UPC-A except that there are minimum 4 zeros, which are suppressed. It reduces the number of digits from 12 to 6. BarDIMM accepts the Zero Suppressed version of UPC-E in both versions of data, compressed and uncompressed. If data comes uncompressed, BarDIMM will perform automatically the compression.

EAN-8

Used in Europe for items sold to the public. EAN-8 contains numeric data only and encodes a 8 digit number. The first two are the country code, the next 5 digits are the product number and the last one is the required checksum character. You do not need to specify the checksum digit as BarDIMM recalculates it.

EAN-13

Standard in Europe for items sold to the public, EAN-13 contains numeric data only and encodes a 13 digit number. The first two are the country code, the next 6 digits are the supplier ID, the next 4 digits are the product number and the last one the required checksum character (that split varies from country to country). You do not need to specify the checksum digit as BarDIMM recalculate it. If the checksum is sent as a 13th digit, it is ignored and recalculated. The number character is printed as text on the left side or the bar code and the checksum is the 13th digit. All the EAN and UPC codes can be followed with two or five digits of supplemental information. If the checksum is sent as the 13th digit, it is ignored and recalculated.

EAN-128 and UCC-128

Variable length bar code starting with FNC1 code and based on Code 128 sets A, B and C to encode the string. EAN-128 is used for pallets labels and EDI related barcode labels. BarDIMM adds automatically the FNC1 code at the beginning and the two checksums at the end.

Code 39

The real name is 3 of 9 bar code. It is probably the most commonly used bar code as it encodes not only digits, but also upper-case letters and punctuation. Spaces are encoded as bars. Text is encoded between start and stop characters “ * ” which are automatically generated by BarDIMM. BarDIMM Pro features two flavors of 39 barcode: with and without starting blanks. IDs 24670 and 24671 do not encode the space characters starting and ending the data to encode. IDs 24672 and 24673 do encode the starting spaces.

Extended Code 39

Based on the standard 3 of 9, it encodes all the ASCII characters by generating two characters for each character in the string to encode. Supports all ASCII codes from 0 to 126. Bar code pattern is quite large.

Interleaved 2 of 5

Code also known as codes 25 Interleaved. Numeric-only code, requires an even number of digits in the string to be encoded. It can contain from 2 to 98 digits.

Industrial and Matrix 2 of 5

Code also known as codes 25 Industrial. Numeric-only codes, can contain from 1 to 99 digits.

Code 93

Compressed version of Code 39.

Extended Code 93

Compressed version of Extended Code 39.

Code 128

New standard for most barcode labels. Code 128 is a very compact bar code for numeric and alphanumeric strings. It has 3 modes: A, B and C, which encode different range of characters. Code 128 auto is an exclusive BarDIMM feature that allows you to encode all the 128 ASCII characters without analyzing the string to encode and use the required Code 128 modes. BarDIMM analyzes data and switches dynamically between sets A, B and C to provide the most compact code. Code 128 Auto is fully compliant with the new worldwide standard for pallet labels, which uses Code 128 mode B and C within the same pattern (ECR labels standard).

Codabar / Monarch

Encodes digits and punctuation characters. Used mostly for blood labelling.

RSS-14, RSS14 Stacked, RSS14 Truncated

RSS-14 is a linear symbology that makes omnidirectional scanning easy. It encodes 14 digits of data used to identify the GTIN (Global Trade Item Numbers) for scanning in the supply chain (for Application Identifier ‘01'). BarDIMM can generate the RSS14 in various flavours: RSS14, RSS14 Truncated (shorter bars height) and RSS14 Stacked (used where a narrower symbol is needed). Only available in BarDIMM Pro 3.3 and newer.

RSS Limited

This form of RSS can be printed very small and is not generally intended for omnidirectional scanning. Only available in BarDIMM Pro 3.3 and newer.

RSS Expanded

RSS Expanded is a variable length, linear symbology that is encoded differently than RSS-14. This symbology allows up to 74 numeric or 41 alphabetic characters. This form of RSS can be printed at densities that can be omnidirectionally scanned. It is used to to encode 14 digits of numerical data that can be used to identify GTIN for scanning in the supply chain RSS Expanded encodes all EAN.UCC Application Identifier Element Strings. Special compaction methods have been designed to decrease the symbol size for common Element Strings. Only available in BarDIMM Pro 3.3 and newer.

MSI Plessey

Numeric-only, it is used on labels for the grocery industry.

2D complement for RSS codes

BarDIMM Pro also generates 2D Composite Components (CC) for RSS barcodes. Please refer to RSS Composite Component in the 2D Barcodes section. Only available in BarDIMM Pro 3.3 and newer.