Barcode Symbologies

There are seven types of barcode that JReport Designer supports, this section briefly introduces these seven types of barcode. For more detailed information on barcode, please refer to the professional barcode technical documentation.

UPC-A
UPC-E
EAN-13
EAN-8
Code39
Code128
Codabar

UPC-A Structure (From left to right)
The Number System
Start guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar.
The Manufacturer Code
Center guard bars, with a pattern space+bar+space+bar+space.
The Product Code
End guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar.
The Check Digit

UPC-A (Universal Product Code-A) is fixed length. It encodes a 12 digit numeric only number. The final digit is a check digit, which cannot be omitted. The nominal height for the UPC-A bar code is one inch. The reduced size is 80% of the nominal size.

UPC-A is a subset of EAN-13; in reality, an UPC-A barcode is an EAN-13 barcode with the first EAN-13 number system digit set to "0". This means that any hardware or software capable of reading EAN-13 is automatically capable of reading UPC-A.

Normally the number system digit is printed to the left of the barcode, and the check digit to the right. The manufacturer and product codes are printed just below the barcode, separated by the guard bar.

Both left guard bar and right guard bar are encoded with 101 (bar space bar).

Nominal X dimension is 13 mils. A magnification factor of 0.8 to 2.0 is allowed and, as a result, makes a printable range of X dimension values of 10.4 to 24 mils.

UPC-E Structure (From left to right)
Start guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar.
Left halve, five digits calculated from the equivalent UPC number.
Check digit.
Stop guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar.

UPC-E (Universal Product Code-E) is also fixed length and is a compressed six digit code used for marking small packages including magazines and paperback books. The printed value of the UPC-E code is a twelve digit code. UPC-E symbols are UPC-A symbols that have been zero suppressed (i.e. consecutive zeros are not included in the symbol). The nominal height for the UPC-E bar code is one inch. The reduced size is 80% of the nominal size.

Left guard bar is encoded with 101, right guard bar is encoded with 010101.

EAN-13 Structure (From left to right)
The Number System
Start guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar
The Manufacturer Code
Central guard bars, always with a pattern space+bar+space+bar+space
The Product Code
The Check Digit
End guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar

The EAN/JAN-13 is fixed length and is similar to the UPC-A symbology, but encodes a 13th digit. Also, the "12th and 13th" digits of an EAN-13, may represent a country code in its entirety or just the beginning of the country code, which may vary from 2 to 3 digits. The code 00-04 and 06-09 are assigned to the United States. The nominal height for the EAN -13 bar code is one inch. The reduced size is 80% of the nominal size.

EAN-8 Structure (From left to right)
Start guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar
Two number system characters, encoded with character set A
The following two characters, encoded with character set A
Center guard bars, with a pattern space+bar+space+bar+space
Last three characters, encoded in character set C
Stop guard bars, always with a pattern bar+space+bar

The EAN-8 is fixed length and is similar to the UPC-E code, but includes two more digits for the country code. The nominal height for the EAN-8 bar code is one inch. The reduced size is 80% of the nominal size.

Code39 Structure (From left to right)
A start character – the asterisk(*)
Message encoded
A stop character – the second asterisk(*)

Code 39 is variable length and is the most frequently used symbology in industrial bar code systems today. The principal feature is to encode messages using the full alphanumeric character set. Three of the nine elements (bars) are wide and six elements are narrow. The Code 39 barcode uses four special characters “$”, “/”, “+”. “%” which can be paired with alphanumeric characters to extend to the full ASCII character set.

Code39 is designed to encode 26 upper case letters, 10 digits and 7 special characters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
-, ., *, $, /, +, %, SPACE.

It Is called code 39 or three of nine because each character encoded is made up of 5 bars and 4 spaces for a total of 9 elements and 3 out of 9 element are always wide.
The height of the bars must be at least 0.15 times of the symbol’s length or 0.25 inches, whichever is larger.

Code 39 is a discrete symbology. Two adjacent characters are separated by an inter-character gap. To have the good barcode quality, the width of the inter-character gap usually equals to the width of the narrowest element, called X.

Code39 requires a starting quiet zone with the minimum 10 times of X dimension or 0.10 inch whichever is greater. The same width requirement applies to the trailing quiet zone.

Code128 Structure (From left to right)
A start character
Message encoded
Check character
Stop Character
Termination bar (bar+space+bar)

Code 128 is variable length and encodes the full 128 ASCII character set. Each character is represented by 11 modules that can be one of four bar widths. It should not exceed 232 characters (including starting and ending codes)

Among all the common linear symbologies, Code 128 is the most flexible. It supports both alpha and numeric characters easily, has the highest number of characters per inch, and is variable length. Code 128 is usually the best choice when implementing a new symbology.

Check code is optional. You should refer the Code 128’s code table to calculate it.

In an open system, the minimum value of X dimension is 7.5 mils. The minimum bar height is 15 percent of the symbol length or 0.25 inches, whichever is greater. The starting and trailing quiet zones should be at least 0.25 inch wide.

Codabar Structure (From left to right)
A start character from 4 choices: A, B, C and D.
Inter-character gap space
Encoded message
A stop character from 4 choices: A, B, C and D.

Character set: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - $ . : / + *
Starting code and ending code can be A, B, C or D

Every char is represented by 4 black bars + 3 white spaces. Variable length, maximum 32 characters (including starting and ending codes)

Code table

Code	Logic
0	0000011
1	0000110
2	0001001
3	1100000
4	0010010
5	1000010
6	0100001
7	0100100
8	0110000
9	1001000
a	0011010
b	0101001
c	0001011
d	0001110
-	0001100
$	0011000
.	1010100
/	1010001
:	1000101
+	0010101

Digit 1, 3, 5 and 7 - black bar, 0 represents slim bar and 1 represents thick bar
Digit 2, 4 and 6 - white space, 0 represents slim space and 1 represents thick space