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BARCODE LABELS
Barcode Label Applications:
We provide labels for a multitude of applications some of the most common include:
Labels printed with barcodes are produced digitally via high speed ink jet, laser or ion deposition printing technologies and can be printed in any quantity from one to infinity. Sizes, Shapes and Finishes of Barcode Labels: Barcode labels can be produced as sheets, rolls or individual labels. We have hundreds of different stock die sizes and shapes to choose from and we can make a custom die for any size requirement as needed. Materials used in printing Barcode Labels: Almost any material can be used when printing barcode labels. Both paper and synthetic materials are used based on the application and your scanner type. The important thing to remember is the materials reflectance will impact the readability of a barcode label. Ink and Printing Limitations - Barcode Labels: Almost all barcodes are printed in black with a reflective background. Contrary to what most people believe, barcode readers read the space between the black lines of a barcode not the black lines themselves. Therefore colored inks may be used but it is important to have a white reflective area left clear of printing for your barcode. Barcode Symbologies: Bar codes are like a printed version of the Morse code. Different bar and space patterns are used to represent different characters. Sets of these patterns are grouped together to form a "symbology". There are many types of bar code symbologies each having their own special characteristics and features. Most symbologies were designed to meet the needs of a specific application or industry. For example the UPC symbology was designed for identifying retail and grocery items and PostNET was designed to encode Zip Codes for the US Postal Service. The following is a detailed description of the most commonly used bar code symbologies: CODE 39 (Normal and Full ASCII versions)  The Normal CODE 39 is a variable length symbology that can encode the following 44 characters: 1234567890ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-. *$/+%. Code 39 is the most popular symbology in the non retail world and is used extensively in manufacturing, military, and health applications. Each Code 39 bar code is framed by a start/stop character represented by an asterisk (*). The Asterisk is reserved for this purpose and may not be used in the body of a message. Code 39 optionally allows for a (modulo 43) check character in cases where data security is important. The health care industry has adopted the use of this check character for health care applications. Another feature of Code 39 allows for concatenation of two or more bar codes. It is sometimes advantageous to break long messages into multiple, shorter messages. UPC-A, UPC-E, and UPC Supplementals UPC-A with Supplemental UPC-E   UPC-A is a 12 digit, numeric symbology used in retail applications. UPC-A symbols consist of 11 data digits and one check digit. The first digit is a number system digit that normally represents the type of product being identified. The following 5 digits are a manufacturers code and the next 5 digits are used to identify a specific product. UPC numbers are assigned to specific products and manufacturers by the Uniform Code Council (UCC). To apply for a UPC number or for more information, you can contact the UCC at 8163 Old Yankee Road, Suite J, Dayton, OH 45458 Tel: 937-435-3870 When specifying UPC-A messages, you normally specify 11 digits and let your bar code printing software calculate the 12th check digit for you. UPC-E is a smaller seven digit UPC symbology for number system 0. It is often used for small retail items. For UPC-E bar codes, you normally specify 6 digits and let your bar code printing software calculate the seventh check digit for you. Both UPC-A and UPC-E allow for a supplemental two or five digit number to be appended to the main bar code symbol. This supplemental message was designed for use on publications and periodicals. If you enter a supplemental message, it must consist of either two or five numeric digits. The supplemental is simply a small additional bar code that is added onto the right side of a standard UPC symbol. 
These two bar codesare equivalent EAN-8/EAN-13 with supplemental (ISBN Version)   EAN or European Article Numbering system (also called JAN in Japan) is a European version of UPC. It uses the same size requirements and a similar encoding scheme as for UPC codes. RSS-14  RSS was developed by the Uniform Code Council, Inc. to answer business needs of its 200,000 member companies in North America. The purpose of the code is to increase the amount of information that can be put into a bar code while decreasing the overall area of the code. The code will allow businesses to improve the stream of information and to match that information to the actual flow of product. This type of code is particularly useful for applications where space limitations are a concern. Industries such as pharmaceutical, healthcare, logistics and transportation, and supermarkets have recently begun utilizing this new symbology. RSS allows businesses to go beyond the typical manufacturer and product identification information embedded in a bar code. The healthcare industry views this symbology as a potential way to significantly reduce medication errors. The RSS technology also improves the labeling and tracking of food items. It gives supermarkets the opportunity to improve their labeling and tracking of meat and produce items. The code can be encoded to include manufacturers name, item identification number, weight, extended price, and the ability to place "best if used by" dates on items. Consumers also benefit by added consumer safety. If a bad batch of produce is placed on the shelves, a supermarket will have the ability to track down the produce immediately and remove it from the shelves. CODABAR  CodaBar is a variable length symbology that allows encoding of the following 20 characters: 0123456789-$:/.+ABCD. CodaBar is commonly used in libraries, blood banks, and the air parcel business. CodaBar uses the characters A B C and D only as start and stop characters. Thus, the first and last digits of a CodaBar message must be A B C or D and the body of the message should not contain these characters. B-Coder will allow any length of CodaBar message as long as it contains valid characters and starts and ends with a valid start/stop character. If you use lower case letters for A B C or D, B-Coder will convert to upper case. INTERLEAVED 2 OF 5  Interleaved 2 of 5 is a high density variable length numeric only symbology that encodes digit pairs in an interleaved manner. The odd position digits are encoded in the bars and the even position digits are encoded in the spaces. Because of this, I 2 of 5 bar codes must consist of an even number of digits. Also, because partial scans of I 2 of 5 bar codes have a slight chance of being decoded as a valid (but shorter) bar code, readers are usually set to read a fixed (even) number of digits when reading I 2 of 5 symbols. The number of digits are usually pre-defined for a particular application and all readers used in the application are programmed to only accept I 2 of 5 bar codes of the chosen length. Shorter data can be left padded with zeros to fit the proper length. Interleaved 2 of 5 optionally allows for a weighted modulo 10 check character for special situations where data security is important. CODE 93  CODE 93 is a variable length symbology that can encode the complete 128 ASCII character set. CODE 93 was developed as an enhancement to the Code 39 symbology by providing a slightly higher character density than Code 39. CODE 93 also incorporates two check digits as an added measure of security. Although CODE 93 is considered more robust than Code 39, it has never achieved the same popularity as Code 39. CODE 93 bar codes are framed by a special start/stop character. B-Coder will automatically add the start and stop characters as well as the check digits to each CODE 93 bar code therefore you should not attempt to include them as part of your bar code message. CODE 128  Code 128 is a variable length, high density, alphanumeric symbology. Code 128 has 106 different bar and space patterns and each pattern can have one of three different meanings, depending on which of three different character sets is employed. Special start characters tell the reader which of the character sets is initially being used and three special shift codes permit changing character sets inside a symbol. One character sets encodes all upper case and ASCII control characters, another encodes all upper and lower case characters and the third set encodes numeric digit pairs 00 through 99. This third character set effectively doubles the code density when printing numeric data. Code 128 also employs a check digit for data security. In addition to ASCII characters, Code 128 also allows encoding of four special function codes (FNC1 - FNC4). The meaning of function code FNC1 and FNC4 were originally left open for application specific purposes. POSTNET  POSTNET (POSTal Numeric Encoding Technique) is a 5, 9 or 11 digit numeric only bar code symbology used by the U.S. Postal Service to encode ZIP Code information for automatic mail sorting by zip code. The bar code may represent a five digit ZIP Code (32 bars), a nine digit ZIP + 4 code (52 bars) or an eleven digit Delivery Point code (62 bars). POSTNET is unlike other bar codes because data is encoded in the height of the bars instead of in the widths of the bars and spaces. Most standard bar code readers cannot decode POSTNET. This symbology was chosen by the Postal Service mainly because it is extremely easy to print on almost any type of printer. POSTNET is a fixed dimension symbology meaning that the height, width and spacing of all bars must fit within exact tolerances. PDF417  PDF417 is a high density 2 dimensional bar code symbology that essentially consists of a stacked set of smaller bar codes. The symbology is capable of encoding the entire (255 character) ASCII set. PDF stands for "Portable Data File" because it can encode as many as 2725 data characters in a single bar code. The complete specification for PDF417 provides many encoding options including data compaction options, error detection and correction options, and variable size and aspect ratio symbols. The symbology was published by Symbol Technologies, Inc. to fulfill the need for higher density bar codes. The low level structure of a PDF417 symbol consists of an array of code words (small bar and space patterns) that are grouped together and stacked on top of each other to produce the complete printed symbol. An individual code word consists of a bar and space pattern 17 modules wide. The user may specify the module width, the module height, and the overall aspect ratio (overall height to width ratio) for the complete symbol. A complete PDF417 symbol consists of at least 3 rows of up to 30 code words and may contain up to 90 code word rows per symbol with a maximum of 928 code words per symbol. The code words in a PDF417 symbol are generated using one of three data compaction modes currently defined in the symbology specifications. This allows more than one character to be encoded into a single data code word. Because different data compaction algorithms may be used, it is possible for different printed symbols to be created from the same input data. The symbology also allows for varying degrees of data security or error correction and detection. Nine different error correction levels are available with each higher level adding additional overhead to the printed symbol. DATA MATRIX  Data Matrix is a high density 2 dimensional matrix style bar code symbology that can encode up to 3116 characters from the entire 256 byte ASCII character set. The symbol is built on a square grid arranged with a finder pattern around the perimeter of the bar code symbol. There are two types of Data Matrix symbols each using a different error checking and correction scheme (ECC). The different types of Data Matrix symbols are identified using the terminology "ECC" followed by a number representing the type of error correction that is used by the encoding software. ECC 000 to ECC 140 are the original type of Data Matrix symbols and are now considered obsolete. The newest version of Data Matrix is called ECC 200 and is recommended for all new Data Matrix applications. The ECC 200 version of Data Matrix uses a much more efficient algorithm for encoding data in a symbol as well as an advanced error checking and correction scheme. MAXICODE  MaxiCode is a fixed size matrix style symbology which is made up of offset rows of hexagonal modules arranged around a unique bulls-eye finder pattern. Each MaxiCode symbol has 884 hexagonal modules arranged in 33 rows with each row containing up to 30 modules. The maximum data capacity for a MaxiCode symbol is 93 Alphanumeric characters or 138 Numeric characters. The symbology was designed by United Parcel Service for package tracking applications. The design of the MaxiCode symbology was chosen because it is well suited to high speed, orientation independent scanning. Although the capacity of a MaxiCode symbol is not as high as other matrix style bar code symbologies, it was primarily designed to encode address data which rarely requires more than about 80 characters. MaxiCode symbols actually encode two separate messages - a Primary message and a Secondary message. The Primary message normally encodes a postal code, a 3 digit country code and a 3 digit class of service number. The Secondary message normally encodes address data and any other required information. AZTEC CODE  Aztec Code is a high density 2 dimensional matrix style bar code symbology that can encode up to 3750 characters from the entire 256 byte ASCII character set. The symbol is built on a square grid with a bulls-eye pattern at its center. Data is encoded in a series of "layers" that circle around the bullseye pattern. Each additional layer completely surrounds the previous layer thus causing the symbol to grow in size as more data is encoded yet the symbol remains square. Aztec's primary features include: a wide range of sizes allowing both small and large messages to be encoded, orientation independent scanning and a user selectable error correction mechanism. The smallest element in an Aztec symbol is called a "module" (i.e. a square dot). The module size and the amount of error correction are the only "dimensions" that can be specified for an Aztec symbol and both are user selectable. It is recommended that the module size should range between 15 to 30 mils in order to be readable by most of the scanners that are currently available. The overall size of an Aztec symbol is dependent on the module size, the total amount of encoded data and also on the level of error correction capacity chosen by the user. The smallest Aztec symbol is 15 modules square and can encode up to 14 digits with 40% error correction. The largest symbol is 151 modules square and can encode 3000 characters or 3750 numeric digits with 25% error correction. Accuracy of Different Symbologies - How Accurate is Accurate? It's commonly known that the best-trained data entry operator will make a keystroke entry error once every 300 keystrokes. Each of these keystroke errors represents an error in your decision-making data. This leads to wasted time, misappropriated capital and ultimately, lost revenues. It is for this reason that most companies make the decision to adopt AIDC technologies. In studies conducted by the University of Ohio, common bar code symbologies were tested to determine real life accuracy. The worst bar code for data accuracy in the test proved to be one of the most common - the UPC. The UPC had a worst-case error rate of 1 error in 394K characters. The best-tested symbologies were the DataMatrix and PDF417, with a worst case error rate of 1 error in 10.5M characters. |