Chapter 5— Linear Bar Codes
Code 128/UCC-128 Specifications
Bar Code
Bar Code
Symbology
Type
Code 128
128
/A/B/C/Auto
UCC-128Std.
UCCEAN 16
Codabar
42
Input
Length
Characters
Variable
Refer to text
Refer to text
Refer to text
Codabar is ideal for applications that contain mostly numeric symbols that
may vary in length from bar code to bar code. It can encode the digits
from 0 to 9, the characters "-"(dash), "$"(dollar sign), ":" (colon), "/"
(forward slash), "." (period), and "+" (plus) as well as start and stop
characters A through D.
One optional checksum is automatically appended as the least significant
digit in the bar code data directly before the stop character. The bar code
symbology specification contains all the information on calculating the
checksum. As a short example, our data is A37859B where A and B are
start and stop characters. The characters 0 through 9 are assigned the
numerical values 0 through 9 respectively. The "-" character is 10; "$" is
11; ":"is 12; "/" is 13; "." is 14; "+" is 15, and start and stop characters A,
B, C, and D are 16, 17, 18, and 19 respectively.
Step 1: Add the numerical value of all the characters (16 + 3 + 7 + 8 + 5 +
9 + 17 = 65).
Step 2: Divide this number by 16 and use the remainder or modulo. In
our example, the modulo is 1.
Step 3: Subtract the modulo from 16. This is the smallest number that
can be added to the sum in Step 1 to make a multiple of 16 (65 + 15 = 80.
80/16= 5). Therefore, the checksum for our example is 15.
Step 4: The character that corresponds to 15 is "+" and is added in before
the stop character. Our final bar code looks like A37859+B.
The bar code type NW7 is for reverse compatibility only. We do not
recommend using this command for new systems. There is no difference
between Codabar and NW7.
EasyCoder PL-Series Printer Programmer's Reference Manual
Ideal
Ideal
Wide/Narrow
Narrow Dot
Ratio
Width
1.5:1
1
3:1
3
Checksum
Calculation
mod 103
mod 103