As you are reading this article take a look around and I am sure you will notice that wherever you will find a printed barcode on an item such as on a food or beverage item, on a book or ID card, even document. This is how common barcode technology have become. Industrial use of of barcodes can be traced back as far as 1960s and in some cases means to identify railroad cars in the US. In the early 1970s, common linear barcode such as UPC were used to automate the process of identifying grocery items. Today barcode is just about everywhere and used for identification in almost all fields of business.

When barcode technology is used in business processes, procedures are automated to increase productivity and reduce human errors. Barcoding should be used whenever there is a need to accurately identify and track something.

A barcode type is also known as Symbology. Symbology is a protocol for arranging bars and spaces that make up a particular kind of barcode. Such as Code 128, Code 39, Datamatrix and QR code.

There are two major types of barcodes : Linear Barcodes and 2D Barcodes. Linear Barcodes are more common, it maybe a UPC barcode on a FMCG product or a Code 39 barcode on a name batch. Some of the more common Linear barcodes includes Code 128, UPC, Code 39 and Data Bar.

With the same amount of data, a 2D barcode produce a much smaller barcode than a liner barcode. Some barcode Symbology includes Datamatrix, QR Code, PDF 417, Aztag, and Maxi code.

Once a symbology or standard has be selected then you must decide on the best barcode type to use you must consider the software that will be used to create a barcode. Flexibility of the barcode product whether you want to use it in multiple environments and compatibility which can include operating system and application compatibility.

There are three major types of barcode products : barcode fonts, barcode components and barcode applications fonts. Barcode can be created using barcode font similar to Times New Roman or Arial. However unlike Times New Roman and Arial, barcode fonts require special formatting so that when barcode font is applied it will be scannable. This is true for most barcode symbologies exception of Code 39 and a few others.

Formatting the data can involve adding start and stop characters or a check digit to format the data or by manipulating data so that when it is interleave into a smaller barcode the barcode font can understand its components barcodes can be created using components such as an ActiveX control .Net

But don’t get into technical, just contact us to know more about our easy to use and flexible barcode and QR code generator software.