-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 2
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
Typically, each barcode format is used for different purposes and to encode different types of data.
You can use this for general data encoding. Code128 has support for all 128 ASCII characters and can also encode numbers efficiently.
EAN comes in a variety of forms, most commonly used is EAN-13 (GTIN-13) that is used on world wide to marking the identity of products.
EAN-13, UPC and EAN-8 all have the last digit as a check digit to verify the content that is encoded. This digit is considered a part of the number and will be verified before generating the barcode.
If the last digit of the barcode is not specified, it will be automatically calculated and added.
CODE39 is an old barcode type that can encode numbers, uppercase letters and a number of special characters. It is best to use Code128 unless this is required for legacy purposes.
ITF-14 (Interleaved Two of Five) is the GS1 implementation of an Interleaved 2 of 5 bar code to encode a Global Trade Item Number. ITF-14 symbols are generally used on packaging levels of a product, such as a case box of 24 cans of soup. The ITF-14 will always encode 14 digits.
The last digit of an ITF-14 barcode is an checksum. It is normally included but will be automatically calculated if it is left out.
MSI or Modified Plessey is a barcode developed by the MSI Data Corporation and is primarily used for inventory control, marking storage containers and shelves in warehouse environments. It supports digits 0-9.
Pharmacode is a barcode used in the pharmaceutical industry. It can encode numbers 3 to 131070.
Codabar is an old barcode type that can encode numbers and certain special characters. The character A is used as a start/stop number.
This app would not be possible without the the use of a core library for generating barcodes: https://github.com/lindell/JsBarcode. I am very grateful for the contributions this library has provided for the opensource community. Thank you!