USPS Intelligent Mail® Barcode Tutorial

INDEX:

• Symbology Overview
• Formatting Intelligent Mail Barcodes
• Printing & Generating Intelligent Mail
• Barcode Generation Examples
• Verifying Printed Symbols
• Symbol Size
• Location of the Symbol

The Intelligent Mail barcode is the term coined by the United Stated Postal Service (USPS) for the new barcode symbology used to track and sort letters and flat packages. It contains a suite of services including the Confirm® Service, which is referred to as OneCode Confirm™, and the Address Change Service™, which is referred to as OneCode ACS™.

The Intelligent Mail barcode combines the information of both the POSTNET and PLANET symbologies, and additional information, into a single barcode that is about the same size as the traditional POSTNET symbol. Automation Discounts for the use of Intelligent Mail barcodes have been supported since March 2007.

Currently, the use of the Intelligent Mail barcode is optional. Since it offers significant advantages, however, it makes good business sense to implement this new symbol today. The USPS plans to require the Intelligent Mail barcode to qualify for automation discounts beginning January of 2009. For this reason, IDAutomation has implemented unique encoding in IDAutomation's Postnet Fonts, which allow printing of Postnet, Planet and Intelligent Mail barcodes with the same font.

To create a proper Intelligent Mail OneCode Confirm or OneCode ACS Barcode with IDAutomation's products, a single string of numbers must be obtained, which is referred to as the DataToEncode. The DataToEncode is made up of the following:

• The Barcode Identifier field is a 2-digit field reserved for future use to encode the presort identification that is currently printed in human-readable form on the optional endorsement line (OEL). Initially, OneCodeCONFIRM and OneCodeACS users should leave this field as “00”. Later, the USPS may require the proper coding of this field.
• The Special Services field is a 3-digit field that identifies the type of service. In the end, the field is intended to allow a single 4CB to support multiple services in addition to or instead of Confirm and ACS.
• The Customer Identifier field is a 6-digit number identifying the mailer. At the initial launching of 4CB, Destination Confirm appends a leading zero to the assigned 5-digit Subscriber ID to form the Customer Identifier field.
• The Sequence Number is a 9-digit field. For Destination Confirm, this field holds the existing Mailing ID field, which is a 4- or 6-digit field. The Mailing ID field can be expanded to 9 digits if so desired. Otherwise, leading zeros should be used to fill the field completely. When using Origin Confirm, the Customer Identifier field and the Sequence Number field may be combined into a 15-digit field to hold the existing 9- or 11- digit Customer field plus additional digits. If these fields are not expanded to 15 digits, leading zeros should be used to fill the field completely.
• The Routing ZIP Code field will accommodate 0, 5, 9 or 11 digit ZIP Code information. Confirm requires a 9- or 11-digit Routing ZIP to serves as "Subscriber ID" for Origin Confirm users. The routing ZIP Code inserted into the 4CB must be registered in the Confirm account.

After the DataToEncode is obtained, the Intelligent Mail Barcode may be easily generated and printed with the IDAutomation Postnet & Intelligent Mail Barcode Fonts, Barcode Components or Barcode Applications. Intelligent Mail is currently supported in the latest version of the following products:

• Postnet & Intelligent Mail Barcode Fonts - USPS Intelligent Mail barcodes are supported in this package by all Font Tools that are Feature Level 7 or greater including the Crystal Reports UFL, FileMaker Barcode Plug-in and the Windows DLL. The unique encoding used in the IDAutomation Postnet Fonts allows printing of Postnet, Planet and Intelligent Mail with the same barcode font.
• Universal Barcode Font Advantage™ - A single font that creates multiple barcode types including Code 128, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5, Intelligent Mail, OneCode, Postnet, Planet, MSI and Codabar.
• Access Barcode Generator - Add dynamic Intelligent Mail barcodes to Access reports without installing additional fonts or DLLs.
• ActiveX Barcode Control & DLL - A COM component that generates Intelligent Mail barcode images and WMF files. This is the easiest component to use for Microsoft® Access reports and Visual Basic 6.
• ASP.NET Barcode Server Control - A collection of web controls, applications and server controls that create Intelligent Mail barcodes on the Internet from Windows Server.
• Barcode Image Generator - A Windows application used to paste or generate Intelligent Mail barcode images one at a time or from the command prompt.
• Java Barcode Package - Create Intelligent Mail barcode images in Java on any OS; a servlet and applet are included. The servlet may be used online at http://www.idautomation.com/java/linearservlet.html
• Online Dynamic Barcode Image Generator - Easily create streaming Intelligent Mail barcodes online and in any application that can access a URL in any operating system.
• Windows .NET Forms Controls - Generate and print Intelligent Mail barcode images from Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio .NET.

Note: The USPS recently renamed the OneCode barcode solution to the Intelligent Mail Barcode. The encoding of each is the same, only the name has changed. In IDAutomation products, the selection of "OneCode" will generate the same barcode as "Intelligent Mail"

Barcode Generation Examples:

When using IDAutomation Intelligent Mail Barcode Fonts, a font tool must be used to generate the text string for the Intelligent Mail barcode font because of the complex encoding algorithms used in this symbology. This generated string will create a correct barcode when combined with the IDAutomation Postnet Font. The text below was generated from the example data string of 0123456709498765432101234567891:
qqrspprpsrqrsqqrqqsprsrrqqqrrsrssrqpqrqrrrsppprrsssqrpqqqrpsrqqrq

Intelligent Mail Barcode images may be created dynamically from the Dynamic Barcode Generator Service, for example:
http://www.bcgen.com/demo/linear-dbgs.aspx?CODE_TYPE=18&BARCODE=0123456709498765432101234567891&X=.06&FORMAT=GIF
(Generating images from BCGEN is subject to the Free License portion of the License Agreement. The licensed version does not contain the "powered by" watermark.)

Symbol Size:

The size of the Intelligent Mail barcode must be between 22 and 24 bars per inch. Additional font widths are provided with IDAutomation's Postnet Fonts for fine-tuning and adjustment. IDAutomation recommends verifying the printed symbols of random selections of mail to ensure proper dimensions. When using Barcode Components or Barcode Applications, the height and width may be adjusted as necessary as long as the properties are within USPS Specification Tolerances, which are shown in Fig. 1 below.

Fig. 1; USPS Specification Tolerances for the USPS Intelligent Mail Barcode:

Location of the Symbol:

Intelligent Mail and OneCode barcodes must be printed on specific areas of mail, usually directly above the name and address. Additional details pertaining to placement of the symbol are available in the addenda to Publication 8, Address Change Service, and Publication 197, Confirm® Service User Guide, which may be obtained from the USPS website.

Printed symbols may be easily verified with the Print Quality Assessment (PQA) tool found in the Hand Held Products 2D Barcode Imager. The quality assurance test grades the symbol and reports any possible problems and dimension errors. The report below was generated when scanning the barcode symbol at the top of this document with PQA enabled:

01,234,567094,987654321,01234567891
>> PQA from Hand Held Products <<
4-STATE CUSTOMER BARCODE(USPS): 65 Bars, nominally from 02.66 to 03.20 in. in Width
Bar Sequence: AADTHHDHTDADTAADAATHDTDDAAADDTDTTDAHADADDDTHHHDDTTTADHAAADHTDAADA
[A] (Ok) < "Tall" Bar Extensions: 0.073 in. from center
[A] (Ok) < "Short" Bar Extensions: 0.021 in. from center
[A] (Ok) < Bar Widths = 0.021 in.
[A] (Ok) < Inter-Bar Gaps = 0.024 in.

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Intelligent Mail, POSTNET, PLANET, OneCode Solution, OneCode ACS and OneCode Confirm are trademarks of the U. S. Postal Service.