ISBN

ISBN

An ISBN barcode is a variant of EAN-13 that is used to identify books.

Also known as: ISBN-13, International Standard Book Number, Bookland EAN-13.

Variants:

• ISBN-10 is a legacy format that was depreciated for public use after 1st January 2007.

Standards: ISO 2108, ISO/IEC 15420, BS EN 797, GS1 General Specifications.

Data and Options

• The data should contain twelve or thirteen digits separated appropriately by dash characters -.
• The data can also be provided in legacy ISBN-10 format as nine or ten digits separated appropriately by dash characters -. This will be automatically upgraded to the ISBN-13 format.
• If the last digit of the primary data is not given then the ISBN check digit is calculated automatically, otherwise it will be verified.
• The primary data can optionally be followed by a space then two or five digits if an EAN-2 or EAN-5 add-on is required.
  • A five-digit add-on is typically used to represent the price supplicant.
  • A two-digit add-on is not typically used with ISBN.
• The includetext option should normally be supplied.
• The guardwhitespace option enables the display of whitespace guard marks.
• The following options are also relevant to this barcode symbology:
  • isbntextfont: PostScript font name for text above symbol
  • isbntextsize: Font size for the text above symbol, in points
  • isbntextxoffset: Horizontal position of ISBN text, in points
  • isbntextyoffset: Vertical position of ISBN text, in points
• Deprecated. The legacy option prevents ISBN-10 input from being upgraded to ISBN-13 and will result in a symbol that is obsolete and should not be used at point of sale.

Example ISBN

Identical symbols, input provided with and without an ISBN check digit:

Data:    978-1-873671-00-9
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

Data:    978-1-873671-00
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

An ISBN with a five-digit add-on:

Data:    978-1-873671-00-9 54499
Options: includetext guardwhitespace
Encoder: isbn

The following ISBN-10 input will be automatically upgraded to a valid ISBN-13 symbol:

Data:    1-86074-271-8
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

Data:    1-86074-271
Options: includetext
Encoder: isbn

Example ISBN-10

Note that ISBN-10 is legacy format not for use at P.O.S.

The following will generate an obsolete ISBN-10 symbol:

Data:    1-86074-271-8
Options: legacy includetext guardwhitespace
Encoder: isbn

Data:    1-86074-271
Options: legacy includetext guardwhitespace
Encoder: isbn