Introduction
As indicated in the article Symbology
Terminology, the symbology is the term used to describe how the
data is encoded into the physical attributes of bars and spaces. It
is necessary to understand the characteristics of each
symbology. In the following symbology specification we listed (1) character
set (2) check digit calculation (3) encoding.
Linear Symbologies
Linear symbologies can be further divided into two major categories:
Width-modulated symbology and Height-modulated symbology. The latter is
mostly used in postal applications. Based on the character set, the
symbologies can be further divided into two categories - numeric and
alpha-numeric.
Numeric symbologies:
UPC-Based symbologies: This series contain the UPC/EAN and
their variants. The number has a fixed length, and must be obtained
from a numbering agency.
UPC-A: Used with retail products in US and Canada. It has a fixed length
of 12 digits. Read specification.
UPC-E: Abbreviated version of UPC symbol, 6 digits.
Read specification.
EAN-13: Used with retail products internationally. 13 digits in
length.
EAN-8: Abbreviated version of EAN-13, 8 characters.
JAN: identical to EAN-13 with country code 49. Used in Japan.
Bookland: used to represent ISBN in barcode form. Identical to
EAN-13 with flag code 978.
UPC-Based Extensions:
2-digit extension: used to indicate magazine and newspaper issues.
5-digt extension: used to encode the suggested book price.
code 11: used to identify telecommunications equipments.
Read specification.
code 25 Series: Including Standard 2 of 5,
Industry 2 of 5 and
Interleaved 2 of 5. Widely used in airline tickets, warehouse and industry
applications.
Postnet: used by U.S. postal office to encode zip codes and
delivery points. Another barcode format used by
USPS is Planet.
UK Royal Mail: A barcode format used by UK
Postal Office.
Codabar: also called USD-4, 2 of 7. Used in libraries and
blood banks. Read specification.
Old symbologies: MSI, Plessey
code. Read specification.
Alpha-numeric symbologies
codabar: called as
NW-7 in Japan. Widely used in library applications.
Code 39: also called USD-3, code 3 of 9, HIBC, LOGMARS. Most
widely used alpha-numeric symbology. It is has an extended form called
Code39 Extended or Code 39 Full. Read specification.
Code 93: also called USS-93. An improved version of code39, used
in Canadian Postal. Read specification. Code 128: A very high density symbology. Used extensively
world wide in shipping, packaging industries.
UCC/EAN-128 is one of its variants. Same as SCC-14
and
SSCC-18. Read specification.
2D Symbologies
PDF417: Widely adopted high density 2D
symbology which is capable of encoding 1850 text characters, 2710 digits
and 1108 bytes.Read specification. |
