Product barcode - Introduction to EAN barcode

The EAN barcode is a commodity barcode designated by the International Article Coding Association and universal in the world. It is used to represent the barcode of the commodity identification code. It has two kinds of standard version (EAN-13) and shortened code (EAN-8). The last bit of the two codes is the check bit, calculated from the previous 12 or 7 digits. Their coding method can refer to the national standard GB 12904-2008 "Commodity Barcode Retail Commodity Coding and Barcode Representation".

The code of the commodity bar code follows the principle of uniqueness to ensure that the commodity bar code is not repeated in the world, that is, a commodity item can only have one code, or a code can only identify one commodity item. Different specifications, different packaging, different varieties of goods can only use different commodity codes.

The barcode of commodity has the following characteristics:

① Only numbers can be stored.

(2) Bidirectional scanning processing, that is, the bar code can be scanned from left to right or from right to left.

(3) There must be a check code to prevent the occurrence of errors in reading data, located in the right of the EAN code.

(4) with left protection line, middle line and right protection line, to separate the different parts of the bar code and capture the appropriate safe space to handle.

⑤ Bar code length is certain, less elastic, but through the appropriate pipeline, it can be used in all countries in the world.

EAN-13

The EAN-13 bar code consists of the left blank area, the start character, the left data character, the middle separator, the right data character, the verification character, the termination character, the right blank area and the human identification character.

Left BLANK: THE AREA WITH THE SAME REFLECTANCE AS THE EMPTY SPACE AT THE far LEFT OF the BARCODE SYMBOL, WITH a MINIMUM width of 11 modules wide.

Start: A special symbol that is located on the right of the left blank area of the barcode symbol and represents the beginning of the information. It consists of three modules.

Left DATA character: A group of bar code characters to the right of the start symbol and to the left of the middle separator. It represents 6 digit information and consists of 42 modules.

Middle separator: Located on the right side of the left data character, is a special symbol bisecting the barcode characters, and consists of five modules.

Right Data character: A group of bar code characters to the right of the middle separator and to the left of the verifier. A group of bar code characters representing 5-digit information, consisting of 35 modules.

Check symbol: indicates the bar code character of the check code on the right of the data character on the right. It consists of seven modules.

Terminator: A special symbol to the right of the barcode symbol verification, indicating the end of the information. It consists of three modules.

Right BLANK AREA: THE AREA WITH THE SAME reflectANCE AS the EMPTY area on the far right of the barcode symbol, with a minimum width of 7 modules. To protect the width of the blank area on the right, add ">" in the lower right corner of the barcode symbol. Symbols.

Human identification character: 13 digits corresponding to the bar code, located below the bar code symbol. The OCR-B character set specified in GB/T 12508 is preferred for human recognition characters; The minimum distance between the top of the character and the bottom of the bar code character is 0.5 modules wide. The EAN-13 commodity barcode is printed to the left of the beginning of the barcode symbol.

EAN-8

The EAN-8 bar code consists of the left blank area, the start character, the left data character, the middle separator, the right data character, the verification character, the termination character, the right blank area and the human identification character.

The minimum width of the left blank area and the right blank area of the EAN-8 barcode symbol is 7 modules wide; The position of the 8-digit number for people to read is basically the same as EAN-13, but there is no front code, that is, the leftmost digit has the corresponding barcode symbol representation; To protect the width of the left and right blank area, generally add "<" and ">" symbols, "<" and ">" respectively, to the left and right lower corners of the bar code symbol.