MicroPDF417 Barcode FAQ & Tutorial

• About the Micro PDF417 Barcode
• Printing and Generating Micro PDF417 Barcodes
• Reading and Decoding
• Hand-Held Symbol Decoders

Micro PDF417 Barcode Products:
Barcode Image Generator | Barcode Label Software Pro |DataBar .NET Forms Control | 2D Image Readers

X and Y Dimensions:
The X dimension is the width of the narrowest bar in the symbol. The Y dimension is the height of each row within the symbol. The ratio of X to Y is usually in the range from 1:2 to 1:5, where 1:3 is the most commonly used ratio.

Compaction Modes:
Text Compaction permits all printable ASCII characters 32 - 126 and ASCII 9, 10 and 13.
Binary Compaction permits all 256 ASCII values.
Numeric Compaction permits efficient encoding of numeric data.

Maximum Data:
Text - 250 characters if all characters are uppercase. In text compaction mode, the amount of data that may be encoded varies due to mode switching between numbers, upper case, lower case, punctuation and other types of characters.
Binary - 150 characters
Numeric - 366 digits (when the data is numbers only).

Number of data columns: 1 - 4.

Number of rows: 4 - 44 in defined combinations with the number of columns.

Several methods are available that enable generation and printing of MicroPDF417 barcode symbols:

• The .NET GS1-DataBar & Composite Barcode Forms Control includes an encoder function and fonts that allow printing of MicroPDF417 as a font. Using this technique, the data must first be sent to the encoder, which runs in Microsoft® Windows. The encoder returns a character string, that when combined with the IDAutomation PDF417 barcode font, will create a correct Micro-PDF417 barcode. Printing with other operating systems may be accomplished by using the encoder .NET DLL from a Windows® system to populate a database with the returned character string before it is printed from the other operating system with the PDF417 barcode font.
• The IDAutomation .NET Barcode Windows Forms Control is a managed code component that allows generation of MicroPDF barcodes from the .NET environment, including Visual Basic .NET and C# .NET.
• The DataBar Image Generator is used to create and paste barcodes into other applications, one at a time.
• The IDAutomation Barcode Label Software Pro version creates MicroPDF barcode symbols within the DataBar object. IDAutomation also offers barcode label printers, many of which support MicroPDF417.

The most common method of decoding symbols is with a hand-held Micro PDF Capable Barcode Scanner. Because MicroPDF417 is not a common symbology, most barcode scanners must be configured from the manual before they will read and decode the symbols.

In some cases, it may be desired to have the scanner trigger a form or action in an application. IDAutomation has documented easy methods of accomplishing this in the USB Barcode Scanner Application Integration Guide.