Barcode Symbology Evaluation and Test Sheet:

There are many situations when the size a barcode occupies is a concern. The following two sections will visually show the difference in symbologies, when encoding the same information. 

• Alpha-Numeric Barcode Examples
• Numeric Bar Code Examples

The symbols below are all encoding the same data of "BARCODE12345678" with the same narrow bar width or X dimension of .03cm or 10 mils. The barcodes will not appear in actual size until they are printed. Print this page and scan it for testing purposes.

Code 39 without check digit:

Code 128 Auto:

PDF417 (mode = TEXT):

DataMatrix (mode =  C40):

Numeric Only Test - The symbols below are all encoding the same numeric data of "12345678901234567890" with the same narrow bar width or X dimension of .03cm or 10 mils.

Code 39:

Codabar:

Code 128:

Interleaved 2 of 5:

PDF417 (mode = TEXT)

Data Matrix (mode = ASCII)

More information about barcoding can be obtained from these sources:

• Code 39 Barcode FAQ
• Code 128 FAQ
• PDF417 FAQ
• Data Matrix FAQ
• UPC, EAN and ISBN Barcode Font FAQ and Data Sheet
• ActiveX Control Tutorial

IDAutomation hopes this introduction to bar-coding has been helpful.

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